There's not a marriage around that doesn't need more sweetness! Sweetness these days is so often identified with cloying.
I think that's partially because we're such a fast moving culture.
We don't have time for sweet tenderness.
We've always got the next place we have to be and the next thing we have to do.
But humans thrive in sweet, supportive environments.
So, let's reconsider a bit, shall we? Your wedding, from the planning to the honeymoon, is an opportunity to start new habits of sweetness in your life.
These are ancient, ancient traditions.
As far back as the writers of Deuteronomy 24:5 it was said that soldiers were not to be sent to war immediately after marriage: "When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him.
He shall be exempt for one year for the sake of his family, to bring joy to the wife he has married.
" A true test of marriage is how well we handle the quiet times.
In today's world, there's little patience for this, but perhaps, if we cultivate it a bit, our marriages and our world would be more pleasant.
The rituals around sweetness were to encourage the taste of sugar in our mouths so that we might exchange sweet words and sweet kisses with our partners.

1. Wedding Planning: Too often, the engagement period is overtaken by the wedding planning period.
   Fight that.
   Plan an evening a week with no wedding planning, no work and no chores - nothing but the sweet enjoyment of your beloved.
   Make this sacrosanct now and your marriage will thrive.
   
2. Wedding Ceremony: I don't believe that there is a culture that doesn't celebrate the offering of sweetness to one another.
   The drinking of wine, the offering of dried or fresh fruits, the tossing of candy or the grating of sugar cones are all celebrations of the need to make time for sweetness in your lives and to celebrate the sweetness that exists.
   
3. Wedding Vows: Promise to speak sweetly to one another forever and to treat one another tenderly.
   And then keep those promises!
4. Wedding Reception: The wedding cake is another manifestation of the tradition of offering one another sweetness.
   If bread and wine were exchanged during the ceremony to represent the need to feed and nurture one another, then the exchange of cake is a reminder to treat one another carefully.
   We make toasts with wine, because wine is sweet in our mouth.
   We put candies out at each place so that the bitter but nurturing almond might be sweetened by the sugar which coats it.
   
5. Honeymoon: the notion of the honeymoon, that period in which there are no demands on a couple other than the demands of love, is derived from the notion that the couple's in-laws were to keep the couple well supplied with mead during the first month of their marriage.
   Couples traveled and came to know one another.
   (The tourism industry was a big support for the notion of the wedding journey!) So silly umbrella drinks and shared ice cream cones are wonderful rituals of sweetness.
   As are moonlit kisses and long walks along shorelines or in the woods, hands clasped.
   

Slow down, enjoy the sweetness, add even a little more.
Bring it home from the honeymoon and try it out at home.
You'll be glad you did.