Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Wedding Wednesday!

Little Bit of Class Little Bit of Sass

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Happy Wedding Wednesday!

This past Sunday we completed our PreCana classes. PreCana is a series of marriage preparation classes couples must complete in order to get married in the Catholic Church.

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I don't talk about religion on here, but being Catholic is a huge part of my life. I love being Catholic. I love that Andrew is also Catholic and that we both grew up going to Catholic schools. I was very involved in my amazing church growing up and truly love our church here in Chicago. In other words, getting married in the church was our only option because it's what we have always imagined and have always wanted. Don't worry, I don't judge couples who get married outside of a church. To each his own!

Anyway, I've heard from other couples that PreCana is lame or boring, but our experience was completely opposite! We honestly enjoyed ourselves! The setup of our courses was spread out over three Sundays covering six different topics (basically, two topics per class). After the class we would all go to Mass.

Each topic was introduced by our instructor with a little talk, followed by a talk on the topic by a married couple who are church members, followed by the engaged couples discussing the topic among ourselves. I was nervous we would have to speak in front of the other 20 couples there, but the focus was really on each couple and we never had to speak! Yay!

Oh, and refreshments included wine and beer, followed by a cocktail party after the last class. Yum!

I won't get into the topics on here, but what I will say is that it was very reaffirming and fun to take time away from the details, like addressing save the dates and picking out a hair stylist, to talk about what really matters and why we're really doing this: the sacrament! The married couples were the best part for us: they were so open and honest about their marriages, including happy stories as well as their struggles and personal issues. It was so brave of all of them to share with us. We are thankful for the experience and for our church! During Mass after the last class, the priest asked all of us engaged couples to stand so the community could applaud our future commitment. It was an incredible feeling!

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It's so easy to get distracted by the details and the one day that you can forget about the marriage afterward. I'm so pumped for that part: the after-the-wedding part! I get to hang out with Andrew for forever? Yes please!!

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Anyway, I'm happy that we are another step closer toward marriage!

Have any of you taken marriage prep classes? Leave a comment and join our linkup! Kristyn and I sure do love it when you do!

Please share the link-up on social, too, if you want! 
@marysue20 is the name, #WeddingWednesday is the game.

4 comments:

P!nky said...

I 100% agree withyou. So many brides worry about the wedding and not the marriage. I am not catholic, but I believe that a wedding is a sacrament and that God needs to be there to help the marriage succeed! I'm always so happy when brides post about their faith and their wedding, it's so important.

xoxo

Kristyn said...

I am obviously not Catholic and we aren't getting married in a church (hello outdoors), but I do like the idea of marriage counseling in some form. I don't know what we will do, but I do think it would be good to be on the same page with each other as we enter our lives together.

My best friend is Catholic and told me a little bit about her experience with marriage counseling. She wasn't a fan and didn't get a ton out of it (but sounds like your church is cool and hip!) It's so awesome that you guys gained something from it and it wasn't just something you had to do.

I probably need to get on that if we want to complete it before we get married! HA!

Stephanie said...

I'm Catholic but I don't know that I'd ever be able to do the classes. I'm Catholic-light. (God and I got in a little tiff over my dog dying a few years ago. I haven't been to church since. Because mentally I'm 5.)
But, I've never desired a church wedding, so I guess I've got nothing to worry about! They are beautiful weddings though. What church are you getting married at?

Olivia said...

I loved this post Mary! And I am very excited about Precana. Josh and I do ours in Jan/Feb 2014. Thank you for sharing.