Catholic Engaged Encounter Weekend

Yes although mine wasn't an overnight. We actually had to do TWO, one through the church and one through the diocese. Other than the stuff about birth control / natural family planning (despite being Catholic I STRONGLY believe in birth control!) I found it surprisingly helpful. There's nothing really to be anxious about, there will be a lot of other couples there too. Just keep an open mind and I think you'll find it's not too bad.

We went last year. Our diocese has a seperate class for NFP (family planning) so they didn't do that. We found the weekend to very rewarding and it brought us closer together.

We have to do an entire WEEKEND. Ugh. But ours isn't until May.

Yadayada, how much time total did you do?

Haha yeah we are going to use birth control too and they are not changing my mind! LOL no babies anytime soon hopefully my fh is even more nervous than I am so on our way there tonight I will warn him about the NFP thing. He is a private guy and I want him to be prepared that they are going to be talking about what he considers to be "our business" I'm glad you found it helpful makes my confidence go up that it will be a good weekend. thanks!

Happy- thats awesome I am hoping it will bring us closer together too

Mrs.J-I had that same UGH feeling too when I found out that it is an entire weekend. We had the option of doing one evening a week for 4 weeks but then fh would have to ask for those days off and it just made more sense for us to do it all in one weekend.

Mrs Joseph, it was bascially two weekends. I didn't mind but my husband (not Catholic) wasn't too pleased about having to give up so many weekends!

We still have to go on our but we can't afford it.

Michelle, you should bring that up with your church. Maybe they can waive the fees. Money shouldn't prevent anyone from being able to do this stuff.

Michelle- I know it is expensive how much is it in your area?

Deirdre, don't worry, nobody is going to be all like, "so Deirdre and FH are you guys doing NFP?" It's more like someone presenting to a group, classroom style. Or at least that's how ours was. Oh, and we had to watch this pro-NFP video except that ALL the couples in the video had like 7 kids!!! I am not even kidding! one of the women with 7 kids weighed say 250 lbs and when they showed her wedding pic she used to look like Tyra Banks! can you imagine??

Yeah that's true what Yada said, our priest was going over the donations for the ceremony and retreat and said that if we couldn't afford it than they would work something out with us becaus eyou shouldn't be denied marriage in your faith like that because of money.

@Deirdre...i think it's like almost $500 but I don't have the paperwork with me.

(sorry i am behind on all the posts I am chasing around a 2 yr old at the moment-reason why i dont want babies!!

Ok yeah classroom style sounds better! Oh gosh 7 kids is just not do-able for me! Maybe I am vain but I want to have a life... Haha yeah and kids can ruin your body like that! My cousin got pregnant after 4 months of marriage because they were doing the NFP and they were really sticking to it too. NFP=SCARY

Michelle- that is expensive! ours was only 260

Not that I don't ever want kids, I do want 2 maybe 3, but I am only 24 and I don't mind waiting a long time

Wow! ours was only $150 total. The format we had was the there was 3 married couples. One couple would make a presentation about a specific topic (finances, kids, etc.) and how it affected them. Then we would my fiance & I would seperate and answer questions about the topic in a workbook. Then my fiance & I would meet up in private and share what we wrote. It was private between us. No one else saw or heard what we thought about the topics. There was also some ice breakers with the other couples and stuff like that.

Happy- that is cool that most of the stuff was just between you and your fiance, i hope ours is like that too. they probably have the same format I hope!

Thanks ladies Now I gotta go home and pack

I'm not excited about our weekend but it'll do. Our cost was $300

@ Deirdre all the engaged encounter weekends are like that...it's all done through a national organization. The couples change, which can have an impact on how good your retreat is (one of our couples really rubbed me the wrong way, they were a lot like my parents in a way that didn't seem healthy and the guy would burst into tears inappropriatly...it was wierd)...but the format is always the same...

update up when you get back!