Happily Ever After: The Engaged Couples’ Guide to Getting Marriage Right

Happily Ever After is an interactive guidebook designed for engaged couples. It is also useful for those who are already married and are encountering “bumps in the road” (or who wish to avoid them), and for long-term couples who are not planning marriage, but who wish to improve their relationships.

This “workbook” is designed to assist both individuals and couples as they prepare for a lifelong journey together, with a view toward making their relationship a more enjoyable, richer, deeper, and more respectful one.

The book covers a wide range of topics, from food preferences to sexual preferences, from spending habits to sleeping habits, from compatibility of religious beliefs to compatibility of senses of humor—and many, many other topics, from the momentous to the mundane.

Each chapter begins with an introduction, followed by a vignette created from the composite stories of real couples the author, Dr. Lawrence Sank, has worked with as a marriage counselor. Each vignette is followed by a set of questions that guide readers through a process of self-discovery while helping them also develop a deeper understanding of their partners.

Through their answers to the questions readers, in essence, become co-authors of this text. And although sharing their answers with their mates-to-be is not essential, doing so can provide the basis of productive conversations, proactive problem-solving, and greater understanding between the two people who are about to say “I do.”