Marriage Prep Weekend-Part 1

For the next two days I will be covering our Marriage Prep Class that we participated in this past weekend.

Joey and I are both Catholic and the Marriage Prep Weekend is a requirement to be married in Davenport and Bettendorf. Although it is mandatory after attending I think this was an invaluable experience.

As we arrived Saturday morning Joey and I were equipped with our Caffeine-Diet Coke well I should say I was since Joey gave it up for Lent. We received our books which titled "For better and For Ever" Ever Ever Ever. . .. Yes For EVER!

The room was filled with more than 85 couples. We a table with available seats with two other couples. Both the girls knew each other and had just completed their PT degrees. Their fiances were still in school becoming a doctor and a dentist. Joey really enjoyed talking with the med student since secretly he would love to go back to school and become a doctor.

The day began with the Deacon Daryl of the parish opening with prayer and telling us we would not be given a schedule for the weekend and to be ready for anything!!
Couples from the particular parish spoke on different segments. The first segment was on "interfaith" marriages. This topic was covered by a Catholic wife and Jewish husband. I thought it was so valuable to hear how they discussed how even though they come from different religious backgrounds they are committed to growing faith together. They pointed out that couples have a much higher success rate when topics like how their children will be raised, if they will attend church together and at what church BEFORE marriage. Many couples wait till after marriage and this is a mistake that both negatively affects the couple and if they have children.

The next topic that was covered was finances. Another topic that has a higher success rate when couples talk about BEFORE marriage. During this topic the couple pointed out some great points after they spoke for a bit. They broke us apart and had us answer questions about our finances and how things would be run in our household. One of the questions was " how much should your partner be able to spend without consulting the other one?" Joey and I wrote down the amount that we thought was appropriate and then showed each other. We both immediately started laughing looking at the differences between what we both wrote. Although we started out with different numbers, we got to the same number with some valuable comedic conversation.

Another topic that was covered was planning for a FAMILY! This was so much fun!! To dream with my future husband about what we wanted our family to look like, how we wanted to raise them, the life we wanted to give them. The next couple had us draw out what or memories were in our childhood of holidays, meals, and vacations. Then compare them. Then they had us draw a picture of what those memories would like for our children. By the way, Joe is a much better artist than I. My plan is to frame our picture and put in our dining room so it can be a reminder of where we are going.

More topics tomorrow and a final look at the weekend from the Bride & Groom!