Have you been back and forth with meeting with different wedding vendors, on the phone with your maid of honor, stuck on Pinterest trying to find the right wedding favor for your guest? Have you looked back on your week and have said “we’re so busy with wedding planning!”

You’re not alone!

I get that planning a wedding gets busy and is something that is on your mind, even if you have an awesome wedding planner helping you along.

So, how do you make time for your relationship in between all your meetings and wedding planning?

Begin to develop small moments to connect with your fiancé that will begin to set the stage for your marriage to come. These small moments of connection are often referred to as “couple rituals,” because they can be unique to your relationship and are a time to share something meaningful with your partner.

Some examples can be:

• Sharing a kiss before leaving to work
• – Check out how a six second kiss can impact your relationship
• Check in with your partner when you get to work and send a nice text “wishing them to have a great day”
• While getting ready or before you leave to work, share what you are looking forward to that day
  – This will give you a chance to express some encouragement
• At the end of the day, wind down together, whether this means going to bed at the same, even if that means you both won’t fall asleep at the same time.

Developing and honoring these small moments of connection will lead to having multiple opportunities of expressing care, engaging in quality time, and to feel close with your fiancé.

I also want to point out that engaging in these small acts together does not mean it will take you hours to complete, or that it will steer you away from other things going on (i.e. wedding planning). At most, the examples shared above can take as little as 6 seconds to 5 minutes at a time. It’s just a matter of being intentional and putting in the effort to engage in those few minutes of connection, which over time, accumulate to hours of quality time.

So, if you have found yourself to feel that you and your fiancé have been swamped with wedding planning, take small steps and develop small couple rituals that are unique and special to the two of you. These small rituals are likely to be maintained (which will increase your sense of connection) versus saying “we should go on a date soon” and finding it difficult to follow through.

Learn other ways to build your couple identity and building a strong relationship foundation by taking an online premarital course!

By Priscilla Rodriguez, M.S., LMFT, Owner of Modern Wellness Counseling

Priscilla specializes in working with engaged couples by providing them with the strategic tools so that they can navigate every chapter of their lives together. Engaged couples can learn