Preparing for the wedding day requires a lot of hard work: booking the reception place, choosing the flowers, and a million and one other practical tasks.

But spending some time preparing for married life itself is even more important. This short, user-friendly manual is designed to encourage engaged couples to discuss their views and expectations of what marriage is all about, and to come to a better understanding of each other's way of seeing things.

It also looks at key issues - including attitudes to money, work, having children, relationships with the in-laws - and helps couples to begin to work through some of these issues in advance of the big day, to identify potential areas of tension and to set in place good principles for their married life together.