Five Things Every Guy Should Know Before Walking Down the Isle

You bought her a ring (hopefully), you’re giving her the wedding of her dreams (with her Parents help), and you’re willing to be seen in public wearing a penguin costume. What more could she ask for?

Traditionally, both the Bride and Groom exchange some sort of gift to each other before the ceremony, usually the evening before when they say good bye. This can be anything from a card with a poem, to another ring, to a pair of ear rings or a new car (for the unreasonably wealthy). The point of this gift is to reaffirm to each other that you are still in love after all the planning, the arguments, the compromises and the expenses. It’s a way of telling each other that you still want to go through with it all.

So really and truly, in this case it is the thought that matters most. My wife bought me the watch I had been eyeing through the drool covered case of our favourite jeweller, and I wrote her a poem that brought tears to her eyes. To each of us, these gifts are more precious than any one gift we received through the entire wedding.

The point, my fine penguin friend, is to be extra thoughtful in your gift. A basket of fruit and exotic teas delivered to her the morning of the wedding, the necklace she’s always wanted from the antique store, pay to bring a far away friend or family member to the wedding, who had previously been unable to attend. Something, anything that will prove to your fiancée that you are committed to her and beyond everything else want to spend your life with her.

Wild, frivolous and uncensored; unbridled, carnal and opulent; these are some of the words that could be used to describe the last ditch celebration of the free man before his walk of doom down the isle of a church or banquet hall. It’s his last opportunity to sew his proverbial wild oats, to declare his boyhood dream of becoming a man, on the night before his passage into adulthood.

Well…some may feel it necessary to let loose and celebrate the life they’re supposedly leaving behind. Others might suggest it’s more fruitful to celebrate the life they’re stepping into. Either way, take care on your last evening of singledom, for dangers lurk around every corner. Ex-girlfriends with agendas invited by devils advocates, strippers turn hookers in the dim light and flowing alcohol, tempting a soon-to-be Groom into a betrayal of everything to come; excesses of alcohol, spawning the content for many an embarrassing video and attendant speech during your reception. There is a warning in here, one that should be heeded lest you become a member of the fraternity of mortally embarrassed husbands or almost-married bachelors.

Moderation is called for, if only for the opportunity to be clear headed during your big day. Wouldn’t it be a shame if your alcohol soaked memory failed to record the image of your beautiful bride approaching you from the far away arched doorway? Your Groomsmen may mean well, but if they are true friends, they will guard against an excess of partying the night before your nuptials.

If you have chosen well on your quest to find a bride, you have nothing to regret and everything to look forward too. You have much to celebrate, but the time to celebrate is after the blessed ceremony, and among the company of your new bride.

Which ever path you take, whether your tux is pink and your Best Man is your Uncle Bob, whether you stood your ground or let reason win against pride, you have chosen to share your life with the one you love, and there is no greater choice to make in life. Make her your best friend, make her your one and only, and think of her always, before you think of anyone else.

Congratulations will ring in your ears, as you slip the ring on her delicate finger and utter the words “I do”.