It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of wedding planning, but it would behoove many a bride (and groom)-to-be to think about the day AFTER the wedding every now and then.

The wedding truly is the biggest part for only so long. At some point, the Big Day will arrive. And 24 hours later, it will be gone. Time doesn't care if your Wedding Day is deemed (by you) to be the Most Important Day of Your Life. Your allocation of Time on your Wedding Day is the same measly 24 hours you got on the first day of kindergarten, the day you stayed in bed nursing a hangover and the day you got fired.

You may be conferring the highest title and importance on this event, but the reality is that the world is not going to stop spinning in recognition of Your Wedding Day any more than it has for any other 24 hour period of your precious life. (Cosmically speaking, this is definitely a good thing, because while you're waltzing down the aisle, partying and wishing the day would never end, there will be other people in the world stuck in traffic, scrubbing mold off their bathtubs, listening to Sarah Palin or riding in an elevator with someone yammering incessantly on their cell phone. These people would be really ticked off if the prolongation of your Big Day caused them to spend even one minute of extra time in these loathsome activities. Just sayin'...what goes around comes around, ya know...)

Regardless of the countless hours spent in pre-Wedding Day planning and activities, what you'll have left after the last guests take their leave are some wonderful memories, a dress you'll never wear again, the satisfaction that you pulled off a successful celebration (hopefully) maybe a pile of debt (hopefully not) and a person who willingly shows up every day at the breakfast table and slides into bed with you every night.

And in between the breakfast table and the bed will be your marriage. Your commitment. Your life. A.K.A. the Big Part. Assuming you get married as an adult and live an average life span, you're looking at a pretty good chunk of time. Even if it's not your first marriage, it's still probably slated to be a fairly lengthy time commitment. Some days you'll get it right. On those days you and your spouse could be the poster children for The Perfect Couple. On others, you'll bite a hole through your tongue holding back a snappish (albeit well-deserved) retort, throw up your hands in disgust and wonder what the heck you were thinking when you agreed to stick with this nonsense-spewing idiot through better or worse. On those days, you're more likely to be considered as the poster children for Marriage Counseling. Or Divorce.

But you'll keep showing up at the breakfast table because the marriage is the biggest part. Aristotle stated that "we are what we repeatedly do". Unless you're Britney Spears, you'll be a husband or wife considerably longer than you were a bride- or groom-to-be. As a husband/wife, you'll repeatedly show up and begin each day anew with this person you've chosen to be your life partner. And if you both (emphasis on the both) work hard and good fortune shines on you, then you'll hopefully spend more days closer to The Perfect Couple end of the spectrum than the other end. And pulling that off is incredibly more fulfilling than finding the perfect wedding dress, having chair bows tied with absolute symmetry and executing your first dance flawlessly in front of 200 of your nearest and dearest. Heck, some moments of your married life will even rival the rapture experienced in your first taste of wedding cake layered with Belgian chocolate ganache, Bavarian Cream and Bailey's.

Your marriage is the part that will be your crowning achievement long after the wedding planning binder is gathering dust on the closet shelf. It will be the big part. My advice? Plan for it accordingly and tend it well.