License to Wed

Here is a little known fact for all of you non-Catholics out there -- in order to get married in the Catholic church, you need to complete six months of pre-marriage counseling and preparation.

Now this was no shocker to us; Troy and I knew all along that we'd be in for a few awkward meetings with the priest and maybe some sessions with an older married couple in the church to hear all about the ups and downs of married life.  But sadly, we did not get assigned to a sponsor couple. Instead, after meeting with the priest, we were told we needed to attend an all-day, pre-marriage retreat with other couples getting married in the diocese.  I immediately thought I was in for my very own "License to Wed" scenario... you know, that movie where Robin Williams plays a crazy minister preparing a young couple for wedded bliss.

Ringing any bells?

There were no mechanical babies helping us to experience the joys of parenthood; no role playing to uncover deep-seeded issues between each another; and sadly, there was no young "minister-in-training" running around to keep us on our toes.  I guess that's why it's a movie and not real life.

Our real retreat was 7-hours long (not fun), but extremely interesting and helped Troy and I to understand the history of marriage in the Catholic church, as well as what we're agreeing to in May when we say "I do."  Best of all, we had to "enjoy" the extremely awkward DVD about Natural Family Planning with roughly 46 complete strangers.  Now, if that's not the perfect way to spend a Saturday, I don't know what is.