Activities

Chore Preferences

Go through the chore list and rank each chore either 1: Enjoy it!, 2: More than willing to do it, 3: Indifferent towards doing it, 4: Dislike it, 5: Don’t want to do it.

Daily

• Dusting
• Sweeping/Vacuuming
• Washing dishes
• Feeding pets
• Preparing meals
• Cleaning bathrooms
• Taking out the trash

Weekly

• Doing laundry
• Washing bedding
• Mopping floors
• Watering plants
• Mowing the lawn
• Weeding the garden
• Washing the car

Monthly

• Washing windows
• Bathing pets
• Clean refrigerator
• Change air filters on furnace/air conditioner
• Clean blinds
• Vacuum curtains

Yearly

• Shampooing the carpets
• Winterize the house
• Clean garage
• Prune trees and shrubs

Our Dream House

Together with your partner and a sheet of graph paper, design your dream house. Take into consideration:

• The number of bedrooms
• Layout of the home
• Open concept or closed
• Big or cozy
• Themes and decorating
• Colors
• Architecture
• Secret passages and sliding book shelves

Have fun!

Make a Budget

Together, make a monthly budget. Take into consideration: Donations, Gifts, Assistance To Family or Friends, Housing, Housing Insurance, Real Estate Taxes, Utilities, Gas, Electric, Telephone, Water & Sewer, Health Insurance, Dental,  Over Counter Medicines,  Life Insurance,  Car Insurance,  Groceries, Dining Out, Lunch, Personal Items,  Clothing, Hair Cuts, Nails, Toiletries, Personal Spending Money, Entertainment,  Cable TV,  Movies,  Subscriptions, Plays/Theater/Sporting Events, Savings,  Car Payments, Gasoline, Maintenance, Repairs, and Monthly Payments To Creditors

Magic

Learn a magic trick! See if you can fool your partner, then teach them the trick!

Get a Fish

Get a pet fish.

It will teach you how to care for something and ensure its survival. It’s a metaphor for your relationship, requiring attention, love, and time. It’s also a symbolic child.

Plus it’ll be cute when you name him “Thor” or “Leonardo” or something.

Build a Fort

With your partner, build a fort. Use everything at your disposal: blankets, pillows, couch cushions, desks, tables, Christmas lights, and mattresses. Spend a night in the fort!

Love Letters

Write love letters to your partner. Seal them in envelopes to be opened on your:

First Anniversary: It’s been a year. Write this letter focusing on your current relationship, your initial thoughts on what your marriage is going to look like, and words of encouragement for the years to come.

Fifth Anniversary: Your relationship will still be young; however obstacles will have been faced and challenges overcome. Write a love letter to your partner reminding them about how excited you were to marry them. Include some fun ideas on how to keep the relationship fresh!

Tenth Anniversary: The seven year itch will have come and gone and your relationship is on its way to its pre-teens. In this letter, remind your lover of the first time you met and how glad you are the relationship has lasted for over a decade!

Twentieth Anniversary: If you had any, your children will be moving out and, if you didn’t, you’ll still be looking at retirement. Congratulate your future love on a job well done and remind them what you want to do as a reward.

Post-Death: We all die eventually. Write this letter from the grave. Provide words of encouragement and gratitude for a life well spent with your partner

Take a Dance Lesson

Take a dance lesson together whether it is at a local bar teaching salsa, a community group teaching swing, or a formal ballroom dance class at a studio. It is an opportunity to get out of your comfort zone. It teaches coordination, communication, and togetherness. Plus it could be a cool thing to pull out at your wedding reception.

Develop Communication Rules

In this exercise you as a couple design your own communication “rules” to help your communication work better. Communication for a couple can be most effective if you use a few rules. They should be simple and realistic for you both to consistently keep the rules. And if the rules are broken, the couple should stop communicating for a break or “time out” until they can establish safety again using their rules.

Example Communication Rules:

1. Each person can only speak from their perspective.
2. Each person should avoid making assumptions about the intentions behind their partner’s words or behaviors.
3. There will be no devaluing of each other while in the therapy room.
4. Volume of speech must be kept to a 5 (out of 10) or below.
5. If a person feels the need to take a time-out, they may do so. The partner must respect the person’s decision to take a time-out and may not engage the person until they are ready.

Create a Secret Handshake

Brainstorm. Shall it start simply with the hands, or maybe a sliding motion from the wrist? Be sure to define where it starts.

Next you add 2-10 steps. From 2-4 means you’re cool and in the in-crowd; 5-10 means you are amazing and will have people trying to imitate you. This may get annoying. Hang in there.

Practice makes perfect. They say no one’s perfect. Too bad! You are the amazing exception.

Avoid awkward motions. Don’t flail your arms everywhere and stuff like that. Keep it subtle. Subtlety and sophistication is always stylish.

Be carefree when doing your intimate shake. If you’re on your guard while doing it (looking at other people, checking their reactions, smiling) they’re going to think of you as an annoying nuisance, thus transforming your “cool” handshake into a dowdy, dumb, unnecessary target for ridicule.

 

Wedding Layout

There are many parts in a wedding ceremony. Cut out the different parts outlined below and glue them to a page in the order you’d like them performed in the wedding. Throw out any parts you don’t want included. On a new sheet add details about what you’d like to see in each section including themes, music, etc.

• Wedding Processional: Entrance of the groom, wedding party, and bride.
• House Keeping: A welcome, a please turn off your cellphones, a thank you to the guests for attending
• A Speech from the Officiant: Describing the couple’s relationship, some anecdotes, and thoughts about love and the commitment that the two are making
• The Readings: A guest or two will read a poem, song lyrics, a Bible passage, or even a scene from your favorite movie or book
• The Expression of Intent: The expression of intent is when you and your partner are asked if you take this person to be your legally wedded partner, and you say, “I do” or “Hell yeah!” or “We do!”
• Vows: Standard; read by the officiant and repeated by you
• Vows: Written and read by you
• Vows: Customized by the officiant, read by the officiant and repeated by you
• Signing the Certificate: Attendants or witnesses to sign the wedding certificate
• The Ceremony of the Rings: The officiant speaks for a moment about the meaning of rings. It usually is along the lines of, “Rings are a circle which is eternal, as is love.”
• The Ring Vows: This is when you present your partner with their ring and say something to the effect of, “With this ring I thee wed.” Again, you can get as creative as you like.
• The Pronouncement: The officiant pronounces you wed, married, husband and wife, zombie hunters for life…whatever you like.
• The Kiss: The officiant says, “You may now kiss the bride” or “Give her a smooch” or “Alright… get at it!” Then you kiss.
• Fun Activity: Do you want to include something unique? A “Love Actually” style musical interlude? A friend singing a song? A presentation of a gift? Be creative!
• A Community Commitment to Support the Marriage: The officiant says something like, “Will you who are present here today, surround this couple in love, offering them the joys of your friendship? Will you support this couple in their relationship? At times of conflict will you offer them the strength of your wisest counsel and the comfort of your thoughtful concern? At times of joy, will you celebrate with them, nourishing their love for one another?” The guests respond, “We Will!”
• Walking Down the Aisle: Everyone walks down the aisle.