My fiance (Catholic) and myself (not Catholic) just completed an Engaged Encounter in Houston. Due to a family illness, our original plan to get married in Belize the day we were to send our deposit.
We were kind of at a loss what to do. She was distraught and pretty much was ready to just go the JP, get married, and fly off to our honeymoon.
I told her, as much as I liked the idea of saving the money, she would live to regret that decision.
I suggested we think about getting married in a church. I wasn't even sure why I had suggested that considering I was never big into the church or god.
We decided to visit a local Methodist church that I had gone to a few times years back. I grew up Methodist. She had never been to a service outside of the RCC. But, I knew the Methodist Church would marry us pretty easily without any real fuss. Seeing as we were running low on time. That fit conveniently into our plan.
We went to the supposed "Traditional Service" at the Methodist. But, nothing felt traditional. I did not feel closer to god. In fact, neither one of us felt like we had actually gone to church at all that morning.
Next Sunday, we attended Mass again at St. Rose of Lima in Houston. Afterwards, we were talking I said, well, let's just go see what the church has to say. Let's find out what the requirements are for getting married in the Catholic church.
After an initial talk with one of the Deacons, we told him what was going on with our family member. That time was a serious issue. So, he agreed there was a way to get it done.
As many of you know, the Catholic church requires marriage preparation classes. Well, we had already missed the Spring classes and would be getting married around the time the Fall classes started.
So, the Deacon asked us to attended Engaged Encounter instead. Engaged Encounter is an overnight weekend marriage prep course.
Now, I just moved from Houston about a month and a half ago for a new career. My fiance is still in Houston and will be for awhile. Needless to say, we were not very excited to lose one of our weekends together at a seminar.
But, I can say now with full conviction that our preconceived notions about how this would go were dead wrong. It was without a doubt one of the best things we have ever done. The course is about faith and love, but mostly it is about communication.
You spend a lot of time writing to your spouse and then reading what your spouse wrote. It seemed quite daunting at first as neither of us are big writers. But, we both made the conscious decision to not resist what they were asking us to do. It was amazing.
I know I'm in the honeymoon or glowing phase having just come out of it. But, I fully believe god had a guiding hand in bringing us there.
There's more to the story that I'll add as I have time.
I'd like to hear from other people that have done either Engaged Encounter or Marriage Encounter or maybe they have done both. Maybe it will inspire a few people on here to go try it out. If you are engaged, I cannot recommend it enough.
We were kind of at a loss what to do. She was distraught and pretty much was ready to just go the JP, get married, and fly off to our honeymoon.
I told her, as much as I liked the idea of saving the money, she would live to regret that decision.
I suggested we think about getting married in a church. I wasn't even sure why I had suggested that considering I was never big into the church or god.
We decided to visit a local Methodist church that I had gone to a few times years back. I grew up Methodist. She had never been to a service outside of the RCC. But, I knew the Methodist Church would marry us pretty easily without any real fuss. Seeing as we were running low on time. That fit conveniently into our plan.
We went to the supposed "Traditional Service" at the Methodist. But, nothing felt traditional. I did not feel closer to god. In fact, neither one of us felt like we had actually gone to church at all that morning.
Next Sunday, we attended Mass again at St. Rose of Lima in Houston. Afterwards, we were talking I said, well, let's just go see what the church has to say. Let's find out what the requirements are for getting married in the Catholic church.
After an initial talk with one of the Deacons, we told him what was going on with our family member. That time was a serious issue. So, he agreed there was a way to get it done.
As many of you know, the Catholic church requires marriage preparation classes. Well, we had already missed the Spring classes and would be getting married around the time the Fall classes started.
So, the Deacon asked us to attended Engaged Encounter instead. Engaged Encounter is an overnight weekend marriage prep course.
Now, I just moved from Houston about a month and a half ago for a new career. My fiance is still in Houston and will be for awhile. Needless to say, we were not very excited to lose one of our weekends together at a seminar.
But, I can say now with full conviction that our preconceived notions about how this would go were dead wrong. It was without a doubt one of the best things we have ever done. The course is about faith and love, but mostly it is about communication.
You spend a lot of time writing to your spouse and then reading what your spouse wrote. It seemed quite daunting at first as neither of us are big writers. But, we both made the conscious decision to not resist what they were asking us to do. It was amazing.
I know I'm in the honeymoon or glowing phase having just come out of it. But, I fully believe god had a guiding hand in bringing us there.
There's more to the story that I'll add as I have time.
I'd like to hear from other people that have done either Engaged Encounter or Marriage Encounter or maybe they have done both. Maybe it will inspire a few people on here to go try it out. If you are engaged, I cannot recommend it enough.
) we just did the program where you're paired up with a married couple from your church. I can't remember the name for that program. 