The OurWeddingDay.com Blog

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece this week about married Jews who take "birthright" trips to Israel have felt a strengthening of their marriage.

"A new study found that rates of marriage outside the faith were sharply curbed among young Jews who have taken "birthright" trips to Israel, a development that could hearten Jewish leaders worried about assimilation...

"While past studies have found that trip participants return with a greater appreciation of their Jewish roots, a study to be released Monday by Brandeis University researchers is the first to suggest that the trips also affect marriage behavior. Its results showed that 72% of those who went on the trip married within the faith, compared with 46% of people who applied for the trip but weren't selected in a lottery."

Read the full WSJ article here.

Check out a guide to Jewish wedding planning here.

Does religious faith of any kind affect your wedding planning or relationship?

Check out the new study discussed in the Wall Street Journal article, Housework Pays Off Between the Sheets.

Scientists says that married couples that do more housework together have more sex!

"Rather than compromise their sex life" because of time demands at work or at home, "this group of go-getters seems to make sex a priority," says Constance Gager, lead researcher and an assistant professor of family and child studies at Montclair State University, Montclair, N.J. The study doesn't measure what proportion of spouses fall into this group, but she believes "they are on the leading edge of couples we expect to see more of in the future."

Many husbands and wives I interviewed offered an additional explanation—that housework may be a proxy for a general willingness to invest in shared interests, a symbol of commitment to home and hearth. Perhaps "working on the same task … makes the couple remember why they married—to be on the same team, to build a life," Ms. Danis says.

Check out the full article here!

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that "new economic realities are now further shaping couples' priorities," and that more and more couples are requesting cash for their wedding present.

They even quote a disgruntled groom, who asks: "What the hell are we going to do with a $400 stand-up mixer?"  He and his bride live in a small one-bedroom apartment in New York. "Everything we get for our wedding is doomed to spend at least three years in her parents' garage."

The WSJ contines to comment on the "right" and "wrong" ways to request cash.

What do you think?  Do cash gifts seem less special or romantic?  Is it always tacky to request cash?  Is cash more practical?