Premarital Counseling?

We didnt do it. We just googled random counseling questions and discussed them. But weve been together 8 years and lived together for 4 of those so we dont really need to lol

We did it!! We went with religious, since we are both Christians! It truly was incredible and we did not want it to end! We are thinking when we have extra funds we will do marriage counseling every few months just to keep us on track and to remind us of what’s really important! We used to be really bad at arguing. We didn’t do it a lot, but when we did it was never really resolved. The counselor taught us how to calmly have a disagreement and how to avoid trigger words and phrases that makes the other person get defensive! He actually said that we’re by far the best couple he’s had with the highest scoring compatibility tests. That definitely motivated us to keep our relationship a priority! I say do it! There’s no harm in learning a few tips and if you don’t learn anything at least you’ll get validation that you have a good stable relationship!

We did it with our Rabbi. He kept it very agnostic for us since we aren’t entirely religious but addressed important foundations for a relationship. Although those sessions are done we decided together it was so enlightening to have a space where things can be dialogued and mediated in a healthy way that we are choosing to continue a couple sessions a month locally. It’s great “exercise” for communication.

We are doing it with our Pastor at the church we attend. I would recommend it rather its within a faith community or not. It is very helpful.

We did couples' therapy with a professional. It was very helpful, and I intend to go back every so often for a "tune up".

Couples' therapy isn't just about fixing problems. It's about strengthening your relationship through better communication, learning to spot potential conflicts and tackling them together, instead of letting them grow, supporting each other in hard times, and understanding each others' communication styles.

We also did Catholic precana, as we expected to have a Catholic wedding. I posted about my experience. It was not good, and then the priest denied us the chance to get married in the Church.

I recommend professionals. You can change practitioners if it's not a good fit, and the focus will be secular.

FH and I go to counseling with a professional and it has been amazing. We both have communication patterns that we’ve developed over the years that kept us from being closer. It’s been amazing and I think we’ll continue well into the future. Counseling is not just for couples having problems, it’s for couples that want to avoid having problems down the road. It can be HARD, but I’ve learned so much in the process eBay is 100% recommend to anyone that asks.

We’re doing it with the guy that’s officiating our wedding. He isn’t an actual preacher but he was our Sunday school teacher and he sometimes gives sermons so it’s Christian based but he’s also a financial counselor so we’ve talked a lot about how things will work when we combine finances and such. I’d definitely recommend it! Somethings have come up that me and my FH have talked about but I didn’t feel great about the conversation we had so talking about them with someone who has been married for 10 years is helpful

We will have to meet with our Pastor
I’m looking forward to the meeting.

We just completed our precana yesterday (Catholic Church's pre marriage seminar). We enjoyed it but didn't feel like it gave us enough discussion points/tough questions to discuss. So we're going to do a bit more of that on our own. We enjoy relationship development in general and have done things like the love language test, enneagram test, and things like that.

As far as professional counseling, we don't plan on doing that, but I definitely respect it and if its ever necessary we will do it.

We did couples therapy and I would highly recommend that or premarital counseling. It did wonders for us.

We did pre-marital counseling (5 - 1 hour appointments with the minister who will be marrying us) and it was fantastic for us! Really wonderful to connect and discuss about how we grew up and our backgrounds in a space that was helpful to let us let our guards down and really be honest about what we're bringing into the relationship and how we intend to create a home for ourselves moving forward together!

We did the Prepare series I think it's called and read A Course of Love, Reptiles in Love and How to Save Your Marriage Before It Starts over the last 6-7 months and really enjoyed all of the books -we've learned so much about eachother through the process and strengthened the communication in our relationship tenfold!

We will be doing it with our pastor/officiant, I’m really excited! As someone who’s been to a professional therapist as well, you get so much out of it, if the marriage counseling with the pastor brings up anything that you didn’t expect to have blow up and you find yourself worrying, I’d definitely suggest a professional on top of that . Therapists are just so helpful!

Thanks for all the feedback!
My fiance and I are atheists so we're not doing any sort of religious stuff.
We were wondering if it was worth it because the cost for a professional in our area is high and premarital counselors aren't covered by insurance, so we'd probably only be able to to afford one session. But from the sound of it going even after you're married seems worth it.