We all dream about living happily ever after with our Prince or Princess Charming. However, life isn’t a fairytale, no matter how we wish it were so. And some of us have it in our heads that marriage to the right partner will make all our troubles disappear. Not so. Read on for the truth about some mistakenly held ideas about marriage.

You should live together before getting married.

Yes and no. Living together before getting married will certainly give you both an idea of how you’ll interact with each other on a day to day basis. But life is unpredictable, and only time will tell whether or not you can weather its ups and downs for the duration. There are issues that may not come up until after you’re married; things like how to raise children, how to handle relocation due to work assignments and how to handle things when a partner looses their job.

You only need a prenuptial agreement if you have lots of money.

Wrong! Prenuptial or premarriage agreements are a great way to spell out in black and white the ‘whats’ and ‘whatifs’ of a marriage. These agreements protect both parties, not just the one with the most money, and can help a couple avoid taking things for granted, particularly when it comes to financial matters. Prenups can really include anything that both parties feel strongly about ranging from money and religious obligations to where you’ll live and where you won’t.

Prince or Princess charming will make your problems go away

Wrong again. Marrying the love of your life may make your problems easier to deal with; it certainly won’t make them go away. If you’re in debt up to your eyeballs in credit card bills, marrying your sweetheart won’t pay the bill. Nor will family conflicts suddenly become a thing of the past. If you build a house on a faulty foundation, the house will eventually fall down. Marriage is no different. Each partner needs to be secure in themselves before marrying.

All you need is love.

It’s a nice song, but marriage needs more than just love. Not that it isn’t the most important ingredient, it is, but like any great recipe, it’s the combination of ingredients that will determine the final result. You also need a large, permanent dose of commitment and compromise. And a sense of humor doesn’t hurt. Most of us love the idea of being in love, and are clueless as to how much hard work marriage can be. We have an image in our minds of what marriage should be like, but have not clear idea of how to make it so. Taking a marriage course together can definitely open your eyes to what you can expect and can teach you how to make your marriage easier.

No marriage is perfect; no matter how it flawless it appears to others. But all that hard work, all that compromise, and in the end all that love makes it all worth it.

This article was written by Shawn Wilson, a member of the customer support team at Datepad, where internet dating is always free. Datepad has a massive directory of informative dating articles along with a great list of dating site reviews on their dating blog.