Marriage Preparation Weekend was pretty fun, actually. Even though it ate up almost the entirety of said weekend, I don’t feel like it was a waste of time.
The majority of the weekend was listening to speakers about what we’d need to consider and how to handle the changes in our relationship once we’re married. Things like finances, communication, family planning, and (quite hilariously) sex were all discussed at length. There were a few worksheets that we filled out between presentations, but they were all just to stimulate conversation between the couples. It was kind of like taking a really, really short semester of university without any tests.
Being that it’s a church-mandated course, there was of course a way for God to fit into everything. And that’s cool with me. I actually feel kind of bad that I neglect my faith as much as I do. The really nice thing that they did though was to really demystify some Bible-related stuff. I learned a lot about what really goes on in there. Turns out it’s not nearly as restricting as the loonies want you to think. Most importantly of course, is that God intends for a husband and wife to really enjoy each other, if you know what I mean. The Bible’s a lot easier to stand behind now that the Catholic church has mellowed out and uses it as a way to help people enrich their lives, and not as a tool to control them.
I feel that I probably shouldn’t be getting to into that kind of stuff here. I don’t feel like making myself an even bigger target for intolerance than usual. The end result of the weekend is that we’ve taken in a lot of information, and certainly have a few more things to consider within the next few months. Also, sevenish months is starting to seem like it might not really be that far off. We’re just working on little things at a time for the wedding, as the big stuff (dress, venues, photographers) is all taken care of, so it’s not really a concern whether or not we’re prepared for the celebration itself.
What I’m fretting about is our living situation. We’ve decided that we will not flush away money and live in apartment, so it’s condo or house for us. Condos seem to come and go very quickly though, and houses are in pretty high demand in the areas we’d like to live, driving bidding wars up by tens of thousands of dollars (or so I’ve heard). I’ve been poking around some real estate websites over the last few months, but we haven’t started looking for a place in earnest yet. Which is okay for now, because the stress of just thinking about it is almost more than I can bear. Still not as sacry as babies though.
Oh well. I knew getting married was going to bring with it a few complications. It was just nice to have a weekend of people saying that despite those complications, it’s the best decision I’m ever going to make. Also they fed us like royalty. That was awesome. Best weekend course ever.
NB: Despite how this post may sound, I’m very excited for both marriage and moving out. I just wish they were a little easier.