Premarital Counseling- Worth it!!

Second. Many religious officiants require but is a good idea regardless.

Second this, even though it was required for us cause we're getting married in a Catholic Church. But it was nice and reassured our values and wants in life to make sure it is still on the same page

Agreed! We learned great communication skills that we will likely use forever!

Agree with your advice. FH and I have only attended our group session and still have three more individual sessions with our pastor, but we already feel like we have learned so much.

Also JFBC was my church when I lived in Georgia. What a coincidence!

We did it too. Our communication has increased Soo much and we learned a lot about each other

We did couples counseling about 4 years ago, the best thing to happen for me. I was the type to hold my feelings in and not discuss them.

I was reading up on pre-marital counseling and decided it was more of a good idea and would help us down the road. We started yesterday. I am curious to see how much we grow as a couple and as individuals.

Thank you for this! I'm in the Atlanta area as well and have been looking for more of a workshop type of counseling. I looked this one up and the next available date isn't until two weeks before our wedding date, but better late then never!

Went thru some sessions. We didn't learn anything that we hadn't discussed as a couple before the wedding. If you can't communicate feelings and needs calmly and directly, you shouldn't be getting married. You and FH should communicate clearly about: Family boundaries, finances, holidays, children, birth control, sex, roles, insurance, illness, upset feelings etc. I was picky about cleaning as I am a clean freak. Happy it worked for you but I thought it was redundant.

We actually meet with our pastor for about an hour Friday night and will meet with him again before the wedding. It was wonderful to hear what we were doing was fine/good and not to worry about what people say.

We haven't started ours yet. I was just talking to my fh today about when we are going to schedule them. Glad to know its a worthwhile thing

How much is it? Do you have to be a member of a church?

You don't have to be a member! I think it was like $60 for a Friday and Saturday session. That includes all materials plus dinner Friday night, and then breakfast and lunch on Saturday! Totally worth it!

And @nancy- while we did talk about all of those things before, there is a lot more that goes Into it. The real benefit was seeing how other couples go through the same things and how the marriage is worth it in the end. Some things we learned about ourselves we didn't even realize, just because we were never put in the situation to. also, it is good for stubborn people, like FH and myself to see that "oh wait my significant other was right."

@Cass: Like I said.. if it helps somebody, fine. I thought it was redundant. Of course the marriage is worth it. That's a given.

Yes! I've been with my FH for 6 years so I definitely know what I'm getting into and we've talked about everything. But we also come from divorced families and want to make sure we're as prepared as possible.

@Jenny: We'll definitely be looking into a secular option for this

@nancy you are right, people should do that, but many don't and even for those that do, it is a sanity check to make sure you have covered all the big things that bite people later. Also, I found that counseling focused some of those discussions we had previously had more generally. For example, we had previously talked about family backgrounds and dynamics, but not specifically about how they might affect our relationship now and in the future.

I am curious. What is the main issue that you resolved in counseling that you never thought about in everyday conversation?

I work in Marietta and we're not religious so thanks for this!

We have had the conversations before, but the big ones were how close we need to be to our families and how we both express love different. I didn't even realize that when I touch him, for me it's a reminder that I love him but for him it's more of a why is she touching me thing. We have different love languages. Now I know that touch does nothing for him, but words of affirmation do. Just good insight!

It's so great! Our church required a retreat before getting married and we loved it and it really helped us