Bailey Vance and Jake Ruggles

Marriage Contract

1. Preliminary statement of relationship goals.

We, as a couple have grown to love each other and will still and develop our intimacy

levels though romance. We want to continue to grow and become closer and stronger through our

relationship. As our relationship progresses we want to feed off of each other and depend on one

another. We plan on getting married and joining forces to equally benefit each other in love and

war. We want to be able to join forces so we can become financially stable. We hope to continue

our relationship for the rest of our lives and stay committed to one another. We hope there will be

an equal amount of love, respect, joy, and happiness.

2. Provisions for revision and renewal of contract.

We believe that this contract can be up for debate to change. We both agree under

different circumstances that this contract is not stick and stone. We will discuss it in more detail

and in depth if the time ever comes.

3. Provisions for dissolution of the relationship (separation and/or divorce).

We know that our relationship will be put through many challenges. We believe that our

marriage could dissolve for several reasons. First, if one of us can bring ourselves to cheat on

one another then that would destroy the trust in our relationship. We firmly believe that a good

relationship is built off of trust and honesty as foundations. Without one of those we both agree

that there cannot be a relationship at all. If this scenario would happen, we both agreed that the
marriage would dissolve as soon as possible. Second, we believe that our marriage would

dissolve if there was any form of abuse, such as verbal, physical, or emotional abuse. Bailey and

I both agreed that if there was any abuse that took place in our relationship, we would file for a

divorce because we agree that you cannot hurt something that you love, and if you do then it was

not love at all. Bailey and I conversed about this scenario for a while and have come to three

different agreements. First, if the abuse was physical, the marriage would dissolve and there

would be no debating it. Second, if the abuse was verbal, we would talk it out for several months

if it continued and if it never gets better than we would file for a divorce. Third, if the abuse was

emotional, we would talk it out for as long as we can about what the other person can do to help

minimize the emotional abuse that is taking place. We agreed that we would talk to a therapist

about the problems to see if that would help at all. If therapy doesn't help, then we both agreed

that if the abuse continued, we would file for a divorce due to the fact that there was no

improvement. Finally, Bailey and I both agreed that we would dissolve our marriage if there was

a loss of happiness and one of us grew miserable. We decided that this would dissolve our

marriage because neither of us would have any interest in doing something that does not make us

happy. In this scenario, Bailey and I both agreed that we could talk this problem out with each

other and regain the fire that once was burning in our relationship. However, if for some reason

we could not restore the happiness, we would file for a divorce once it has become too miserable

for each other.

4. Decision making and division of labor.

we do agree on major decisions like, where we are going to live, where we are going to spend the

holidays, what vacations we are going to take, what home we will have, and how many children

we will want. The list could go on and on. We can make minor decisions either on our own or

with little say from the other person. We believe that both of us are going to work full time jobs

to earn income. We will not have a principal breadwinner unless one is significantly making

more money and we could be stable enough alone on that income. Then and only then will we

have a principal breadwinner. We discussed that we will have separate banking accounts. For

example we will have a shared account where we will put an equal amount of money from our

own earnings. So 60% of our income will be put into our shared account. The rest of the money

each of us earn can go into our own accounts. We will consult major purchases such as cars and

homes ect. We agreed that everyday purchases can be done independently.

For homemaking there will not be one principal homemaker. The house work will be split

on a pretty even playing level. We decided that Jake will do all the heavy lifting like mowing the

lawn, fixing anything that needs to be fixed and taking out the garbage. As where I, Bailey will

do laundry and dishes and cleaning inside the house. This does not mean we cannot help

eachother out or even switch it up at times. The cooking will mostly be done by Bailey and the

grilling will be done by Jake. We also agreed that once a week we will try and go out to dinner

instead of cooking if we have the money to do so.

We decided if we were to have children and if one of us was making enough money to

support the family we could have a stay at home parent. With that being said if we don’t want to

stay home we could still choose to work insead.

Relationships with spouses are crucial for both me and Bailey. We discussed our

childhoods and discovered that both of us were always around family and we both value our

relationships with our families immensely. Therefore, we will spend a lot of time with both sides

of the family but will also leave days to spend with each other such as vacations and some

weekends. When it comes to the holidays, we will hopefully be able to invite both families into

our home so that we can bring both sides together for the weekends. When it comes to distance,

we may have a problem considering how far the distance is. If we are on the opposite side of the

country from one of our families it will make it much harder to visit both sides equally.

However, if we happen to live in the same state as our relatives, that would be an optimal

scenario. However, because we both value family relationships we have agreed that we would

travel any distance to see our families. In addition, we do believe that alone time is very

important for our relationship. Thus, we will put aside plenty of alone time with each other in

order to keep our relationship in a good place.

6. Communication expectations.

Since we have already been in a relationship for several years we have become great

experts in our relationship. We decided that we will take time out of each of our days to sit and

talk to each other and be present with one another. We plan on taking as much time needed to

communicate deeply with each other. We also discussed that if communication becomes a
problem then we will have to try and figure out what the problem has been and try to fix it. We

agreed that marriage will not be the easiest and there's days that communication will be difficult.

This is important for us to make sure that we dont let that affect how we feel about each other.

We should be able to tell eachother anything even if it is difficult, that is what will make the

relationship stronger and healther. The only way we will get professional help if communication

gets so bad that it leads to both of us being miserable.

7. Educational goals

We hope to have our college education completed before marriage. We do not plan on

pursuing any other advanced education. If this does come up we will support each other. We

decided that if a great opportunity comes up to relocate because of great job opportunities we

will take all things into consideration. These include if we are moving away from relatives. How

far away would the job take us? Will this move truly benefit both of us as a whole?

8. Children.

Bailey and I have discussed many aspects of having children. We both agreed that four

children would be ideal as we both come from large families. In addition, we have both

discussed that we want to be financially settled into our future jobs before we have children

because of the financial toll that children have. Birth control would be Bailey's responsibility as

it is for her to take. We have also discussed unwanted pregnancies and both agreed that we

would give the child up for adoption instead of abortion because neither of us believe in what
abortion stands for. In addition, both Bailey and I were raised in a very fun and supportive

environment. However, when we made a bad decision we were punished for it to teach us not to

do anything like that again. We both grew up with one strict parent and one relaxed parent.

Therefore, we will most likely take a similar approach with our children. In addition, I believe in

making my children competitive and playing in sports so that I will have an easy way to bond

with my children. Because both me and Bailey were college athletes, we will heavily push for

our children to be athletes as well. When it comes to children's responsibilities, both of us are

pretty well equipped because we both have younger cousins that we babysat along with nephews.

When it comes to punishments, we have agreed that we will share that responsibility in order to

avoid fear of one specific parent. Physical punishment will not be used unless it is necessary.

We both believe that sometimes physical punishment is needed because of how it teaches

lessons.

9. Expectations for sexual relations.

We have discussed that our sexualy needs are important in our relationship. We agreed

that we are both 100% comfortable with each other. We expect that we are both respectful and

will allow for each other to be open about what we need sexually out of the relationship. We

discussed that if we feel dissatisfied with our sexual needs we will sit and talk about what it is we

both need. If it comes to the point where we both or one of us are not being satisfied we should

try and switch things up.

10. Friendships and privacy expectations.

healthy. We both need several hours to ourselves each day. We should not be at each other's hips

all the time. It is important for us to keep a relationship with ourselves as well. We will respect

each other's decision if one of us says we need to be alone. We agreed that we both will set aside

time to be present with our friends. We don’t have to set an amount of time where we get to

spend with friends. We won’t be super strict and demanding on whether or not we can hang out

with other people as long as it's not more time with each other. We agreed that we do not mind

each other having friendship with people of the opposite sex. This is because we have so much

trust in one another. We believe that we should have enough privacy where we don't feel like we

are getting invaded. With that being said, we expect each other to be open and honest with who

we are talking with. We also expect each other to communicate with each other through our

phones.

11. Time off/Vacations

Bailey and I have talked about vacations a lot and have come to the conclusion that we

are willing to go basically anywhere with each other. We both agreed that we enjoy the beach

and the ocean just as much as we enjoy the mountains and the snow. In addition, we would

enjoy trips where it is just us and we have nothing that we need to do and can relax and enjoy the

time we have with each other. We also believe that going on vacations with friends is important

as well so we will be taking separate vacations whenever the opportunity presents itself. In

addition, we will be taking these vacations whenever we are asked because it is important to
keep in touch with your friends.

12. Religious beliefs and practices

Both Bailey and I were raised to practice our religion and both value faith tremendously. Even

though we are not the same denomination, our beliefs are similar and do not clash. I am

Presbyterian and Bailey is Catholic, however we do not attend church on a regular basis as we

both play sports which sometimes interfere. On religious holidays, we will attend Baileys church

because I do not mind. In addition, Bailey prefers to have her children baptized in the Catholic

church which is ok with me. We both believe that when it is all said and done, our children will

make their own decisions about their faith and there is nothing we could do about it. While this

may concern some people, we believe that it is perfectly fine whatever they decide. However,

we would both try to convince our children that there is a God.

13. Political views.

Both Bailey and I are not very involved in politics because of how politics has become

over the years. Neither of us are fans on how political races played out. Both Bailey and I are

registered voters because we believe it is our duty as citizens to vote for people who we think

have good intentions for the people. In addition, we are both conservatives so our views are

similar. However, if we do have disagreements we will talk them out and we believe that they

will be dissolved quickly because of how much we both despise politics. We believe that talking

out our differences is the best way to settle arguments and disagreements. Because of this, we
will talk about anything with each other and not hold back our thoughts. We both agree that the

military is unbelievably important because of what sacrifices they make for us. Because of this,

we both agree to always support our troops whenever we can.

14. Unanticipated events.

When it comes to death we both agree that if one of us were to pass we will be in each

other's will. We will discuss what will happen with our kids when we have them. WE want to

have the support of our family to help out if one of us were to pass. We agreed that if something

were to happen to either of us we would want each other to fall in love again. We also agreed to

be buried next to each other. We agree to be supportive of one another in whatever we decide to

do. If one of us were to fall ill be will respect any wishes they have for

15. General discussion.

Primary Concerns: How supportive we will be with each other and our kids.

Intimacy: Being present with each other and giving affection.

Commitment: to only have feelings towards that one person

Responsibility: Taking action and voicing our opinions when it is appropriate

We agree that if anything comes up we will be partners and discuss it apportatiely