Meeting the parents is often the defining point of a serious relationship. It takes the couple from casually dating, to serious about one another. It’s a step that many couples take months and even years to reach. Having met the parents and succeeding in gaining their approval of your relationship is a huge milestone for any couple. It sets the trend for the future of the relationship, often culminating in a formal engagement and soon after followed by a wedding.

There’s no one else who knows your prospective bride as well as her parents, so when the Father of the Bride makes the effort to give you some advice on your wedding day, pay attention. Here are some pieces of wisdom that fathers have shared with their future sons-in-law on their big days. If they resonate with you, feel free to use them in your personal lives as well. Some of them may be relevant to you even if you are not newly married.

Remember the Moments

From the perfume that she’s wearing, to the way her hair is styled. From the most poignant memory of the wedding ceremony, to the goofiness of the first dance. The wedding is full of moments that you should memorize, so that in the future you can pick them out and relive them. The pleasurable memories of this day will be enough to see you through a number of rougher and tougher moments that life may bring to you in the future. Now this is advice that everyone should follow. Not just for the day of the actual wedding but also for all future special events that you share together.

It’s Never Easy, but it’s Always Worth It

Marriage is a lifelong commitment to your wife. People will come into and leave your life over the years, but she will always stand by you. That doesn’t mean that it’s going to be an easy run. Every relationship has its ups and downs. During the ups make memories that will sustain you during the downs. As long as you understand that a rough patch is not an excuse to throw away everything that you have built together, you will be able to weather any storm. You will learn to fix things faster so that you can have more ups than downs.

She’s Going to be Just Like Her Mother

Take a good look at my wife, my daughter’s going to be just like her mother. Let’s pretend that your future father-in-law just said these words to you. How does that make you react? With hope or with anxiety? Now, if you find that your mother-in-law is the kind of woman that you admire, you should be delighted with this pronouncement. Afterall having a caring, loving and supportive wife, who gets your whacky sense of humor, is not someone to be taken lightly. Now you can congratulate yourself on your good taste and go ahead and get married.

Will You Look After Her?

One of the top concerns fathers have in handing over their baby daughters to the prospective grooms is that he won’t care for her the same way they do. This can lead to requests to look after her which can stem from polite requests, tearful admonishments, drunk finger pointing, and of course threats such as if you hurt her, I’ll hurt you. Essentially the Father of the Bride just wants to be reassured that you have the best intentions towards your future wife. The minute the man is convinced that you only want the best for his daughter, you will have an ally for life.

Contracted Love

A homemade contract which has points such as promising to love each other despite forgetting to take out the trash, burning the dinner, forgetting to pay the electricity bill, or leaving the toilet seat up, can be a fun way to establish boundaries and rules. More than one father who is a lawyer has come up with a set of terms which may never be enforceable in a court of law, but will make perfect sense in your daily lives. A simple clause that everyone would agree makes perfect sense is the one where you never go to bed angry with each other. You always make up before you go to sleep. You can come up with a number of such fixtures for your own personalized contract to keep things light, but convey expectations at the same time.

Don’t Expect Me to Clean Your Kitchen Sink

Not every Father of the Bride is a handyman who can help with clogged plumbing and not every Mother of the Bride is looking forward to baking cookies with their grandchildren. Not many parents let the newly married couple know at the onset about their expectations and boundaries. At times it may even be considered impolite when gauged by social norms. Yet a father who lets the groom know that he will not be showing up to help with a household plumbing crisis, right at the wedding itself, is actually setting a very healthy precedent for expected boundaries to be followed.