Why Premarital Counseling Should Be In Your Wedding Budget

premarital counseling

According to a CNN report published in June of 2023, the national average wedding cost was $29,000. Wedding vendors are expected to increase their prices to meet economic demands, causing the overall cost of weddings to rise in 2024.  If you or someone you know is engaged and preparing for marriage, consider the value premarital counseling can have on the marriage beyond the wedding day. I’m not saying that the other expenses involved in planning a wedding are frivolous—my husband and I don’t regret the things we chose to invest in for our big day.  What I am saying is that allocating a portion of funds toward premarital counseling is an investment worth making during your engagement season! Premarital counseling...

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Why I Think You Should Consider Premarital Counseling Before Your Wedding

premarital

Pretty soon we will be starting wedding season!  It’s hard to believe that spring will be around the corner.  This is also the time of year when many couples have gotten engaged and are also planning a wedding for this year or next.  If you find yourself engaged, I want to take some time to advocate for the importance of Premarital Counseling.  So much time goes into the planning of the wedding, but what about planning for the marriage?  What if you spent time planning for your lifetime together, in order to address any problem areas before you say “I do”?  I think it’s important, especially with our marriages, to be proactive versus reactive with addressing problems. Why Premarital Counseling?...

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Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Propose

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We are coming into the holiday season, which means that lots of people will be getting engaged soon.  If you plan to propose soon or believe your partner may be, I want you to take a second to consider if this is the right fit for you, or even the right time.  In a time period where the divorce rate for first marriages is 50% and rising, you want to make sure you are making the right decision for both of you. As someone who works with a lot of couples in many different stages of relationships (dating, engaged, married, divorcing), I meet a lot of couples who rushed into marriage without understanding the commitment they were making.  My hope...

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5 Reasons Why You Should Slow Down that Engagement

engagement premarital counseling Carmel Indiana

It’s wedding season, which means we are in the thick of bridal showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties, and wedding ceremonies.  I’ve even noticed an uptick in conversations about weddings in my counseling sessions!  People who are not yet married are seeing all the hustle and bustle of planning a wedding, and often wishing that could be them.  Being around weddings can make women especially dream about their own engagement and wedding. While this time of the year is sweet and lovely and full of fairy tales, it’s also important to discuss the reality of a marriage.  Once a couple is engaged, there is often a rush to the church alter, without a lot of time to process the leap both are getting...

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What is SYMBIS for Marriage, and Why is it Important?

SYMBIS premarital counseling Carmel Indiana

I’m very excited to announce that I recently became a certified instructor for SYMBIS.  SYMBIS stands for Saving Your Marriage Before it Starts.  It is an evidenced-based premarital counseling tool developed by authors and therapists Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott. What is SYMBIS? SYMBIS is an online tool that allows engaged or newly married couples (or even couples who have been married for a while!) to log on individually and take an assessment.  The assessment has many questions about personality, upbringing, attitudes towards money, sex, and much, much more.  It then creates a print out with the results.  I receive the results and set up a minimum of 6 sessions to go over any strengths, weaknesses, or caution flags that...

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Why Premarital Counseling?

premarital counseling

I remember hearing a story once of a couple who went to one scheduled premarital counseling session before their marriage. When the session turned to the topic of intimacy, the counselor just chuckled and said “Oh, you’ll figure that out!” and moved onto the next topic. Many of us enter into marriage with a “we’ll just figure it out” mentality. Marriage can’t be that hard, right? What’s Your Priority? A bride and groom spend many hours preparing every last detail for the wedding day. What if even a fraction of the time was spent preparing for the marriage?  It's common for couples to say, “We just don’t have the time and/or money for premarital counseling”. It's important to remember that...

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