mrs2be.ie

[sam-4-bob]

Hey Ladies

Have to organise a pre-marriage course now , its a requirement with our church

Just wondering what actually goes on at one ?? Would love some feedback, also some recommendations for a particular course Thanks x

[Hailey]

We had to do the accord one. It was ok not as bad as i thought but def not worth €120. You get a folder with different sections in it. We didnt get thru half of them. There was quiz's u ans one bout urself and swap to c what partner said bout you. Stuff like that i cant member much !!!!

[detoxkid]

Funny, we did ours today. It was accord as well. A total money racket imo. Covers things like sexuality, parenting, intimacy, communication, conflict and a sacrament of marriage. Some of the facilitators were great, some pretty bad. A priest was also there, he blessed the engagement rings which was nice. It was nice to meet other couples, but really I can say I did not learn anything and did go in there with an open mind.

[letmeeatcake]

We did the Avalon one. It was as painless as it could have been, to be honest. The guy was a psychotherapist and he ran through everything fairly efficiently. I would have preferred to not have done it at all, but we didn't really have a choice.

In the morning we got a booklet thing to fill out, stuff you know about your partner, things that worry them, things that worry you. Your opinions on finances, children, workloads, family matters, etc. You swap books just so you can see what the other has written. You don't need to say anything if you don't want to. It was 11am to 5pm, with an hour for lunch and 20 minutes for coffee in the morning. So the day went quick enough. The afternoon was about conflict resolution and a little quiz about what to gather if stranded on a desert island. Everybody else made a game plan but h2b and I had a disagreement about what to collect so I told the guy we would go our separate ways on the island! He seemed a bit put out...

There was no priest at ours, so that was nice. I don't think h2b could have handled it, he was half asleep as it was!

[sam-4-bob]

Thanks ladies!! Im kind of dreading it as is H2B . Hoping its not too old fashioned as we live together and have a child etc but cant wait to get it out of the way

[Hailey]

Its not old fashioned at all..........some parts are a little sexist doh . There was a few couples with kids in our course n no-one batted an eyelid it's the modern day.

[letmeeatcake]

We had a couple who brought one child in with them on the day! They said they had 6 more at home! So there are all kinds of couples in there, don't worry. Nobody there will be judging you, even the course person.

[MrsTK2B]

We did the Accord one this weekend and I was pleasantly surprised. I was worried it would be really religious - H2B is Catholic and I'm not. But although there were religious bits and a few prayers most of it wasn't like that. The tutors were good, very friendly and helpful and they do it voluntarily. They had seen it all before, realised most people there live together and some have kids. We both felt it was worth the €150 and we were glad we did it. I felt very calm after it for some reason, maybe just having time to stop and think about being married instead of the wedding planning, family rows about wedding etc. And the price included very nice lunch in a local pub which was a bonus.

[TanyaBranning]

Ours was broken into 4 different parts.
Money Issues by local CU manager.
Family Planning
Priest - which was really useful, got the most help from him.
Relationships Session. A guy came in and spoke about HIS relationship.

All in all was handy out, 10.30-4.30, no cringey bits or q's to answer.

[TanyaBranning]

Ours was broken into 4 different parts.
Money Issues by local CU manager.
Family Planning
Priest - which was really useful, got the most help from him.
Relationships Session. A guy came in and spoke about HIS relationship.

All in all was handy out, 10.30-4.30, no cringey bits or q's to answer.

[HappyLamb]

Hi missies .. I'm off with h2b next weekend on course.. I'm just looking at the prices, were doing the accord one and got charged €170!!! Wonde how come the same organisation charges different amounts for the service of volunteers .. I appreciate the administration costs but I'm baffled how it can vary within the organisation.. Perhaps I'm just being mean.

[MrsTK2B]

It was mentioned at our course that the price is going up soon so maybe all the Accord ones will be €170 soon. Or maybe they are more expensive if they have to hire a venue like a hotel for the day? Ours was in the local pastoral centre so maybe that keeps their costs down a bit. I'm only guessing though.

[TGR]

We did the premarriage course with Accord in August and they charged us 200 euro. There were 2 hours of classes on a Friday night and then 7 hours (with an hour for lunch) on Saturday. We thought that since they charged us 200 euro that lunch would be provided, and were pretty surprised to find that it was not. The church where ours was held was not really near any places to eat, so we had to walk 20 minutes to find something. The plus side of the course was that it wasn't too religious (h2b is not Catholic). Overall, I'd say they touched on some important things but, but not things we hadn't already talked about and it was definitely not worth 200 euro!

[HappyLamb]

€200! Yikes!! The course we are going to is being held in the school where I work handy for travel I guess.. I think it seems like a lot of money in advance but I guess I should wait and see what happens.. I was a buy concerned that h2b and I would get disapproving tuts cause we live together so glad to hear we won't.. open mind is all I can have!! Thanks

[bingowings]

After admin costs, rent and lunch etc. alot of the money from Accord courses goes towards counselling services, not only for couples going through a bad patch in their marriage but also for wives/husbands going through abuse, couples who are having problems conceiving etc. We paid €170.00 for our course and although we didn't get a whole lot out of it I didn't mind paying if the money went towards something good.