How Can I Be Sure?: Questions to Ask Before You Get Married

My husband and I met in 1997, but knew fairly quickly where the relationship was going. Because I'm from a broken home, I wanted to be certain I knew exactly what I was getting. The questions (and his subsequent answers) were foundational to deciding to marry my husband. I am happy to say, we are still in love and enjoy each other's company thoroughly, even twelve years later. Because of the questions in this book, I had a pretty good idea who I was marrying and haven't had much in the way of surprises. The surprises we did have were due to cultural differences (he's from another country), but that's not really what the book gets into. One must expect a few cultural bumps in a marriage where both parties grew up in different countries.When using this book, I found it helpful to write out my answers before discussing them with my husband. That way I had MY thoughts written down without being influenced. It really helped highlight areas of difference. As my husband likes to say, this book brings to light discussions you will have at some point in your marriage. You can either get them out there before you wed or after, but you WILL discuss them eventually and possibly not so civilly.We continue to send all engaged friends to this book. Don't get married without it...or at least the questions it raises.

This workbook asked my bride-to-be and I questions that we hadn't even thought of asking. We thought we had done a good job getting to know one another and understanding the views/positions each other had on certain topics, but this workbook was fantastic at bringing to light topics that very much mattered, yet we had not considered. My wife and I have been married over 12 years and we've recommended or gifted these workbooks to many of our engaged friends. If anyone is serious about entering into marriage, then you need to seriously consider this book!

To this day, my husband and I give credit to this book for helping us to be thoroughly prepared for our marriage by getting to know one another so very well. There are a few uncomfortable topics, but if you do this, you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt whether you are right for one another. This is not the first marriage for either of us, and we both agree that we definitely would not have married our previous spouses if we had done this book with them. We recommend this to EVERY couple in a serious relationship!

We give this book to family members who are contemplating marriage, BEFORE an engagement happens. The sessions are designed to give couples a serious insight to their relationship, asking questions that couples seldom discuss prior to marriage. It's like self pre-marital counseling.

Though this book has some information that is more basic than I was looking for, it definitely looks into some issues that are important and breaks them up into small, precise questions allowing one to really focus on where the problems and conflicts may lie within a relationship. Perhaps not the end all be all in this type of book, but definitely an excellent starting place.

EXCELLENT books that have stood the test of time for helping you discuss any and all topics you should discuss before marriage. I would highly recommend these to anyone thinking of getting married or as an engagement gift. They were given to us over 35 years ago and we went through them and I was very appreciative to have had books so thorough and thoughtful. Have bought them for many people over the years.

This book helped me husband and I prepare for our marriage. It really helped us understand how things were shaped and how each of use came to have beliefs and values.

I got this book as an anniversary present for my boyfriend for our 1 year anniversary - but I don't think I'll be giving it to him. The other reviews made it seem like it would work well for couples who were already engaged or those who were just seriously dating. My boyfriend and I are seriously dating and have discussed getting engaged (I'm just waiting on him now, haha) but this book was still a little intense. It uses the terms "my fiance" which threw me off a bit, and then it also discusses IN DETAIL aspects of a couple's sex life. (I'm a grown woman and I was beginning to blush!) I rated this book a 3 because I didn't read through it much. It very well may be a great book for engaged couples who are almost married, but for those who are not yet engaged, you could probably find something better. Also, this was more along the lines of a check list. There were maybe 10 paragraphs of actual text throughout the entire book. So just a warning - do not buy this book unless you are already engaged and getting married shortly.