Wedding Week on WTOP is a 5-part series that explores wedding planning, budgeting and more on air and online. This story is part 5.
It’s WTOP’s wedding week and our very own freshly-hitched Luke Lukert is out on the streets looking for advice for newly married couples.
I went to the Lincoln Memorial with my new wife Leslie, asking passing couples what they wished they’d known when they just got married.
Some tips were practical advice.
“Don’t touch your cold feet to her legs,” one couple visiting from Texas told me. Trust me, I’ve already learned that.
Other advice was a little more serious.
“Don’t go to bed angry. Make sure that you have a conversation before you go to bed. Talk it through, you may not get it resolved, but at least you can bring the subject up,” Steven Elkins, a pastor living in South Carolina, said.
Some of the advice was aimed at me, like “Do more dishes, help cook, offer to do more things around the house to make her life easier.”
Leslie liked that bit of advice a lot.
“(Our) rule is that the last one out of bed is the one that makes the bed,” one couple from Arlington, Virginia, told us.
And since I wake up 3 a.m. most mornings, I’m going to steal this rule.
“We have time together. We have time with kids, we have time alone. And all three of them are distinct,” said Alex and Maria, who have been married for 15 years. “Talk positive about your wife or about your husband in front of others. Never complain even jokingly to another person. Only good things, only good things.”
Even their son offered us some tips: “Don’t forget to not die.”
Bleak advice, Max but I’ll try to remember.
“Reclaim your portion of the bed. This is all I get. And she gets everything,” said one man who stood at about 6-foot-5.
Amen brother, you’ve got to beat back the bed hogs.
Overall, the message was to be patient and kind to your partner.
“Don’t hold on to the little things that kind of bug you or irritate you,” Elkins said.
Read More on Wedding Week content
- Part 1: How to start planning your big day
- Part 2: A little sweat equity can help make your wedding a little more affordable
- Part 3: Tips for DC-area couples from a luxury wedding photographer
- Part 4: The process of crafting a unique engagement ring is more complex and thrilling than you think. Take a behind-the-scenes look
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