Summer is here, and that means its wedding season! After a couple of years of isolation, we are all ready to kick up our heels and dance the night away to celebrate love with friends and families. I am always amazed at the time and effort that goes into planning these amazing celebrations of Love and Commitment. It makes me wonder though, how much of this planning goes into what happens the day after, or even the year after? Which is why I am a big fan of premarital counselling; specifically, how it gives you the tools to uncover the potential pitfalls facing all newlyweds.
An average wedding costs about $40,000 just for the day and takes 200-500 hours to plan. Depending on the couple, these numbers can fluctuate greatly. Couples planning their dream day will budget for the wedding attire, rings, flowers, decorations, transportation, food, drinks, banquet hall, entertainment, and honeymoon. Very few will budget for premarital counselling.
Couples may begin premarital counselling on someone’s suggestion, or because it was another item to check off on a long list of wedding-to-dos, often left to the last minute as a low priority. However, making premarital counselling intentional allows you to get more out of your marriage and perhaps prevent major challenges down the road. Premarital counselling prepares you for a realistic perspective on marital expectations, it is an investment into your marriage and your future.
Premarital Counselling sessions focus on areas such as marital expectations, communication, finances, conflict resolution, family and friends, children, parenting, blended families, personalities, spirituality, sexual expectation etc. These sessions can help you practice crucial relationship skills, so that you can be more aligned on major aspects of your relationship, creating a stronger foundation on which to begin your marriage. Couples are challenged to explore their values, greatest fears, speak their truth, be vulnerable with each other, and share parts of themselves that they might not have done during the romantic dating phases. An experienced therapist will support you, guide you, and even dig a little deeper and explore personal traumas that may affect the marital relationship. The aim is to get you started on a solid foundation.
This might be too much and even too personal, but isn’t that what you are getting into, a personal intimate relationship with each other? This journey can be fun filled, laughter inducing, serious, and even tearful at some stages. However, it looks, it is an absolute “must do” on the planning list.
At Elpizo, we offer twelve (12), 90-minute sessions to discuss the abovementioned topics, and to aid the couple in creating a marriage plan. Your investment: 12 weeks, 18 hours, and a financial investment of about $3,000-$4,000, which you claim back on your health insurance. The time to start a plan for your lifetime partnership is now. Prepare for a marriage of “I chose you, every day”. Be informed, be intentional, build a solid foundation, begin from a place of knowledge, transparency, and alignment in creating a successful marriage. Congratulations for taking this bold journey of premarital therapy. We look forward to seeing you!
