My husband and I recently had the pleasure of attending the inaugural BMWK Marriage Cruise. When I first heard about it, we immediately jumped at the opportunity because we truly believe that when you put your marriage first, it creates a stronger foundation and bond for the entire family. Not to mention, we hadn’t planned a real getaway in a long time. So what better way to spend time strenghthening your marriage than on a marriage cruise with dozens of other couples who are looking to do the same thing?

To say it was phenomenal is an understatement and no, I’m not just saying this because this is Ronnie & Lamar’s site, nor did they put me up to it LOL! It was so inspiring to learn from couples who were teaching us some incredible marriage nuggets, and doing it as a team.

From Terry and Deborah Owens talking about love and money (and the seven wealthy habits of financially successful families), to Carlos and Katherine Greene discussing love and intimacy (love is more than a four letter word), to Dr. Johnny & Lezlyn Parker sharing the importance of seasoning your heart for satisfying communication (marriage is heart work); they all dished out some juicy nuggets. I know this is just the beginning and I’m so glad that Ronnie & Lamar have decided to make it an annual getaway because it’s needed!

So many people claim their marriage comes first, but what does that really mean? And how do you demonstrate that? This was the first time we had both been away from the kids for this period of time (a total of nine days). But we realized that we hadn’t taken time to really focus on our marriage in a long time.

It was so great to completely unplug from e-mail, phone and social media for a whole week. We enjoyed dating day in and day out, and having conversations about things that really mattered without all of the distractions.

It’s one thing to go away on vacation with just you and your spouse. And yes, we probably would’ve had fun if we had done a cruise on our own. But we wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun, and our marriage wouldn’t have been transformed the way it was coming off of the marriage cruise. We wouldn’t have gained so many phenomenal resources and tools that we could put into practice right away to take our marriage from great to amazing and from amazing to phenomenal. A marriage getaway, gives you the best of both worlds.

Here are 5 reasons you need an annual getaway for your marriage:

1. It strengthens your marriage.

One of the quotes I took away and love is “a great marriage doesn’t just happen, it happens intentionally”. In order for your marriage to continue to grow and flourish year after year, you have to continue to nurture it and feed it and you have to be intentional about it.

2. You need a break from distractions.

Regular dates and dinner outings are great. But often times it’s hard to even do that. An annual getaway is intentional and brings the focus back to where it belongs (minus the distractions).

3. Meet and connect with other happily married couples.

It’s one thing to see the beautiful pictures on this site and on the FB page and hear the many stories from happy couples. But it’s a completely different thing to witness it first-hand. It’s simply amazing, and surrounding ourselves with other positive and happy couples is exactly what our marriages need.

4. It’s like a honeymoon.

While we’ve been married for almost nine years, we really did feel like we were newlyweds on our honeymoon again. We danced all night like teenagers, took lots of naps, ate like champs and held hands everywhere we went.

BMWK: What things do you enjoy doing to strengthen and grow in your marriage? Will you join us on the 2015 BMWK Marriage Getaway? Details will be announced soon.