We are both so happy we took the Marriage Prep 101 workshop! It was fun, extremely useful and a great bonding experience, an excellent investment in our future. Dan and Michelle are brilliant!
Marriage Prep 101 is a must-do for any couple who is looking to invest in and improve their relationship! It really helped us to talk through our relationship needs and expectations and also create a roadmap for the marriage that we would like to have. We particularly enjoyed from the conflict resolution portion which helped us identify what some potential challenges could be and to create a plan for how to best deal with them when they arise. The workshop also requires a certain amount of self reflection and the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it. Michelle and Dan Joy were great! They used examples from their own relationship to illustrate different points, and it made them completely relatable and extremely likable. You can tell that they really believe in the workshop and love what they do! We highly recommend this workshop to all couples as there is something in it that EVERY couple can benefit from. Thanks again for a wonderful workshop!
We never really thought we would have needed a class like Marriage Prep 101. However, what drew us to this workshop was its research-based, secular approach and after reading other couples’ experiences we felt that the class would help build on the healthy foundation we would rely on for the rest of our lives. Marriage Prep 101 is helpful for anyone at any stage in their relationship, as it covers a lot of important and sometimes overlooked communication skills and problem solving methods that will help build a healthy foundation. Thank you!
Marriage Prep 101 is time very well spent, regardless of the stage of your relationship. It is a structured way to hit major topics of potential dissonance, individually as well as with your partner. Thank you!
We had an excellent experience at Marriage Prep 101. We discussed some provocative and interesting topics using new methods and strategies that were incredibly productive and discovered strengths that we didn’t know we had. Coming from different religious backgrounds, we really appreciated how Marriage Prep 101 was so steeped in psychological and other scientific research.
It was worth every penny and we wish there were a couple more weekends!
We would recommend Marriage Prep 101 to any couple and firmly believe that it was a crucial addition to and tool for this exciting time in our lives.
Dan and Michelle were fun, energetic and great teachers. They made difficult topics easier with interactive games and work sheets. Any couples should take Marriage Prep 101, regardless of time together, to set yourself up for success.
The Marriage Prep 101 seminar was so enjoyable and successful for us as a couple.
The information and tools shared are proven and essential for a happy and lasting marriage. Which is what Joe and I are striving for in our marriage.
Learning different communication styles, creating conflict resolutions, clarifying expectations and exploring our strengths and weaknesses as a couple were insightful and inspiring.
Having the tools and skills to communicate with each other will definitely keep our marriage bond strong and thriving.
This seminar sets up an open and comfortable place to share expectations, feelings and fears without the fear of rejection or judgment.
We took Marriage Prep 101 a month before our wedding, which was the PERFECT launch into our marriage and future.
Dan and Michelle are great, they really helped my fiancé and I deepen our relationship and get to the root of what our challenges are as a couple. I also really appreciated that the models and tools they utilize are based on science and psychology.
Michelle & Dan make a great team! They kept Marriage Prep 101 fun, meaningful and engaging. The workshop brought up topics for us that we didn’t even think about. Marriage Prep 101 was very, very informative. We loved the couples exercises! Dan and Michelle were casual, laid back and personal – their relationship examples helped us a lot. I can’t think of anything I would change about the workshop and our experience – it was truly great! Also, Dan was hilarious! We enjoyed everything about Marriage Prep 101.
Regardless of whether you think your relationship is great or has challenges, Marriage Prep 101 is a great way to get tools, frame ideas and push oneself to look in word and outward to strengthen your relationship. It’s a safe, comfortable and judgment free environment that leaves you feeling empowered immediately!
Honestly, I would place this class as being the most important wedding expense we’ve spent money on, even above the marriage certificate. I mean, really, what good would it do to get married if you don’t prepare for it?
Some context! My fiance and I have a really happy, solid relationship, but I wouldn’t say that our relationship has been really challenged yet (perhaps related to the fact that we do not yet live together). But the challenges will inevitably come! So what’s a couple to do? We definitely wanted to do some premarital preparation but were not religious enough to be interested in the Engaged Encounters/Pre-Cana classes required by the Catholic Church. We also didn’t want to go through the potentially expensive process of couples counseling if we didn’t have specific issues we wanted to work on.
The workshop format was the perfect solution. I’d say it was secular (but not anti-religious… they’re pretty respectful) and could be a good option for couples with different religious backgrounds. The cost also covered a light breakfast, lunch, snacks, and a workbook for each person, and I’m a fan of swag in general. The class would be a great jumping point into couples counseling, too, if you have more complex needs to work on.
Also note: they recommend that couples take the Relate test ($40 per couple), and it’s optional. The test can be very helpful as a tool, but be careful about interpreting the results. I still think it’s worth taking anyway.
I think Jeff M’s review is pretty comprehensive and accurate to our experience of this class, so I’ll just add to that:
They use a lot of their own personal anecdotes that were relateable, entertaining, and memorable. This was especially helpful for when we went over some of the communication exercises, and seeing them demo the techniques using their own stories made it more accessible and easy to do ourselves.
I liked that they included a section on how we think of family backgrounds and their potential impact on our own marriages. It helped to think about how our parents’ marriages could influence our own views and even made me think of how I would want our future kids to view our marriage.
The class opened up some topics we hadn’t thought about discussing before and gave us a good space to talk about it privately and productively. I think it could be helpful to come to this workshop with an idea of some non-dealbreaker issues to talk about.
You don’t have to be engaged to take this class. A few couples were already married, and a few had kids, but at least one couple was not engaged. I would recommend this class to any couple in a long-term relationship.
You also get out of the workshop whatever you put in. You don’t have to participate in the larger group discussions, but definitely come ready with an open mind and a readiness to do the work, and you’ll be rewarded.
At the end of the workshop, my fiance and I definitely bonded more and feel a lot more strengthened in our already-great relationship. Gifting this class would be great for couples!
Dan and Michelle have created a fun, safe environment to learn about our relationship and ourselves. They provided tools that we definitely expect we will use in the long term. They kept it light and easy but gave us time to learn and explore. Great experience! 10 out of 10!
We are so glad we took Marriage Prep 101. The course makes the tough topics easier to talk about. It really gets into important topics while providing the tools for a successful marriage. We are so glad to have taken this workshop.
Deciding to attend Marriage Prep 101 was one of the best decisions we have made together in our relationship. Along with happiness and excitement that accompanies being engaged, some feelings of apprehension and anxiety emerged.
The exercises that we did in the workshop reminded us of the strengths we have in our relationship that make us a great match. In addition, focusing on our “challenge areas” brought a sense of comfort that we will be able to work out any disagreements that can arise during our lifetime together. They presented a wealth of knowledge about relationships in an entertaining and productive way. We both, without reservation, strongly recommend this class to any couple who want to have a fun, educational weekend that will give them the tools to strengthen their relationship.
Marriage Prep 101 was positive, thought-provoking and fun. I would recommend this workshop to all couples!
Hilarious, insightful, fascinating, and powerful are just a few words that come to mind after attending the Marriage Prep 101 course. My fiancé and I are truly perfect for one another, but our communication was slightly less than perfect. Attending Marriage Prep 101 workshop helped us gain practical tools for strengthening our communication skills, deepening our bond, and was just plain fun! How is this workshop not required for everyone before making a lifetime commitment?! Since it isn’t, we highly recommend it as one of the best investments you can make in your relationship. It is worthwhile not just for “the good of the relationship,” but for bringing more happiness into your life; which is ultimately why most of us are committing to someone long-term, right?
Marriage Prep 101 is helpful, creative and taught with heart. You will learn tools that everyone needs. Thank you for helping make the world better, one couple at a time!
Dan and Michelle do a fantastic job! I left the weekend with concrete action items for a closer relationship with my significant other. It was a fantastic opportunity to explore common marital challenges in a friendly and structured environment.
Dave and I have been together for almost four years. We are engaged to be married in September. We feel pretty good about the strength of our relationship and communication skills. However, we’re both children of divorce and the closer we get to our wedding, the higher my anxiety about divorce goes.
We already knew we shared common values, backgrounds and ideas about what our married life will be like (how to handle finances, how our life will adjust to children, etc.), so we were primarily looking to learn some new conflict resolution skills. Like any couple, we were a bit tired of having the same fight over whose turn it was to fold the laundry or empty the dishwasher. We decided to find a non-religious pre-marriage communication workshop we could attend together and Marriage Prep 101 fit the bill! We came to the workshop figuring we’d learn some new techniques for handling conflict, but we got so much more than we expected.
Marriage Prep 101 provides a fast-paced workshop mixing the latest relationship psychology research, characteristics of successful couples, as well as their own experience as a long-time married couple, while helping you address all the big issues couples face through frequent couple exercises supported by their offers of one-on-one attention. They cover it all – family history and childhood, finances, religion, conflict, love languages, sex, romance, children and work/life balance. The workbook they provide with tips and exercises is definitely something we’ll be hanging on to.
The beginning of the workshop helps couples identify common values, goals and ideas they share, as well as challenge areas they may be facing or face in the future. We left the first night feeling really great about all the strengths we can celebrate about our relationship. During the second day we learned a wealth of conflict resolution techniques, a number of which we found ourselves already using the day after the workshop. The conflict resolution tips we learned nip the small tiffs right in the bud and give us a structured and non-volatile way of addressing the bigger issues. This workshop is perfect for the couple that is tired of fighting the same old fight with no end in sight.
My favorite part of the workshop was developing a roadmap for our marriage. We spent the last part of workshop collecting all the relationship strengths, challenges, strategies and goals we had identified throughout the weekend into a single document, “The Marriage Bond.” We plan to revisit, discuss and revise our Marriage Bond on a regular basis. We both love the idea of approaching our relationship with intention instead of just skating along hoping things keep going okay. Marriage Prep 101 gave us the foundation and tools for a happy, healthy and lifelong marriage.
Marriage prep 101 taught us so many great tools! I was surprised to learn something new about my partner after 10 years together!
Marriage Prep 101 was a wonderful way to strengthen our relationship and prepare us for marriage. We had been looking for a pre-marital class that was nondenominational and found Michelle and Dan. We were particularly impressed that the exercises were evidenced based and knew that many couples had benefited from the activities. Over the course of two days we went over topics ranging from why we feel in love, to our future as a married couple. We particularly loved hearing from other couples and the instructors about their own experiences. As a bonus, we even got to have dinner on Friday at Off The Grid right outside the workshop location!
Marriage Prep 101 offered a platform for my fiancé and I to express our emotions and concerns in a way that we hadn’t been able to before. Dan and Michelle propose several tools and thought exercises that we will use to continue bettering ourselves and our relationship. We are so grateful for them sharing with us their knowledge and providing direction.
Marriage Prep 101 was an amazing experience and a highly recommended must-do for anyone interested in having a truly successful relationship; whether you are getting ready for marriage (as we are), already married, or seriously dating – there is definitely something that you can learn from this workshop.
Marriage Prep 101 is a class that is loaded with relevant and useful information, resources, and tools that help you to better understand yourself and your contribution to the Relationship, and will allow you to further strengthen this bond.
They teach in such a way that is fun, concise, and REAL, using examples from their own relationship that made us feel so validated and gave us a lot of encouragement in knowing there are useful and effective ways to deal with differences. And it can be FUN!
Taking this workshop will help you become better individuals and a better “WE”!!
Our weekend at Marriage Prep 101 definitely brought up lots of things that we needed to talk about. The course was designed to provide us with tools we could use to tackle tough issues. It also provide a framework to continue utilizing the skills throughout our time together. Dan and Michelle are warm, friendly and provided a safe space for open dialogue. Thank you!
It was wonderful to spend time working on ourselves this weekend and to be guided by such warm and committed experts. We appreciated being in such good hands.
After a year of seriously dating, my boyfriend and I took Marriage Prep 101. We were at the point where we knew we wanted to make the commitment to marry, but were hesitant because we had yet to work through some fundamental issues. Although we had been going to premarital counseling for three months, it wasn’t until we took the Marriage Prep 101 workshop that we finally saw the bigger picture and made real progress in our relationship.
It’s a good thing the workbook we were provided had wide margins because we were both taking notes as fast as we could write them! Marriage Prep 101 is based on the most current marriage research–they made numerous references to different books or authors in the field for further reading, which was very helpful. Throughout the 10-hour workshop, my boyfriend and I kept looking at each other as each new topic was introduced that applied directly to issues we were having. What we figured out was that coming from parents who had unhappy, unsuccessful marriages, we just didn’t know what made a good marriage work. After the workshop, we have a clear picture of the research surrounding marital success, as well as a list of the areas we will need to work on and the strategies to do just that. As soon as we got home, we called up his brother who is currently engaged and told him he had to take this course. In a culture where we spend thousands of dollars to get married, spending a few hundred to help ensure we stay married is the easiest decision to make, and one we will recommend to all of our family and friends contemplating marriage. Thanks again!
I was at first skeptical about a pre-marriage workshop. I felt it had a stigma of “we have issues we need to work out.” This was very incorrect. Any couple can benefit from discussion of the topics in this course! Marriage Prep 101 revealed where our strengths were, identified problems we both were avoiding, and helped us create a path to working together towards harmony as we begin our lives as a married couple.
Marriage Prep 101 helped us feel so much more confident going into our wedding. It helped us articulate things we felt but couldn’t name in our relationship. We are so grateful to Dan and Michelle and highly, highly recommend this amazing weekend course!
I was apprehensive that this workshop would be too emotionally difficult, uncomfortable or boring. I was proven wrong on all counts. Instead Marriage Prep 101 felt safe, welcoming and fun!
We have been seriously dating for two years. Although we’re generally satisfied with our relationship, we knew we would need to resolve a few issues before we could take it to the next level. When we found Marriage Prep 101, we liked the fact that it was non-religious and the description sounded like just what we were looking for!
The workshop centered around the seven keys to a lifelong marriage. The examples they gave were realistic and clearly illustrated the concept they were presenting (good humor too!) There was nothing overly touchy-feeling since it’s all very practical advice. Throughout the workshop, couples were given the opportunity to try out some of the tools on the spot with coaching if necessary.
Most importantly, they emphasized not to just let this knowledge “live in our heads” but to incorporate them in our daily routine. Some of the tools we found particularly useful were learning your partner’s love language and the structured approach to conflict resolution.
After taking the workshop, we felt that it was one of the best time/money investment we’ve made for our relationship. The skills and tools gave us renewed confidence that we’ll be able to work through our current and future challenges. We’re telling our engaged and seriously dating friends about the workshop because it should be on every couple’s wedding to-do list.
My fiancé and I decided to take Marriage Prep 101, not because we felt we had an issue, but because we felt it could never hurt. We are so so thankful we did! Dan and Michelle offered a comfortable environment for opening up and sharing and I truly feel that our relationship has grown stronger than ever from this experience. We have tangible tools and techniques to keep throughout our many years of marriage. Thank you!
Andrew and I loved the Marriage Prep 101 workshop. Through fun exercises, we learned meaningful details about each other’s lives-things we had never shared before-which deepened our relationship.
But our favorite part of the workshop (amazingly enough) was conflict resolution; as a couple, we learned techniques to slow down that tricky area of disagreement in order to prevent the head-on collision of fighting. We are very proud of our certificate of completion and we’re sure all other committed couples would be too. Through attending Marriage Prep 101, we automatically took our relationship to the next level.
What a valuable two days! Dan and Michelle really allowed us to come together as we build our life together. Thank you so much!
Dan and Michelle are great! They gave us a verbal tools we can go home with and use immediately to help strengthen our relationship. I learned how my past affects me, what my triggers are and how my fiancé can best be with me during the most difficult times.
It’s easy to get caught up in wedding planning and all the “to do’s” on the list. We’re really glad we made taking the Marriage Prep 101 workshop a priority. We feel it put into perspective the extent of the life change we are about to enter. After spending time on Friday evening, clarifying expectations and and then on Saturday, learning various communication tools we felt even more confident about our decision to marry and love for each other. We made a weekend out of the seminar by spending a few great days in San Francisco.
We’re so glad we did because we left the workshop on Saturday afternoon with a clear vision–a Mission Statement actually– that we wrote together on how and what we were going to make our marriage satisfying and enduring. This helped us to confirm our commitment to be together.
It also helped to be in a room with other couples going through the same challenges was really helpful. We are both pretty athletic and enjoy training for races and runs so it only made sense to train for this most important life event!
Thanks again for a great weekend we’ll recommend your course to all our friends and their partners.
Marriage Prep 101 was the best way to start our married lives together! Not only did we learn practical skills to enhance our relationship, but we were able to talk through difficult topics and a productive fashion, which ultimately strengthened the foundation of our bond and set the trajectory for a wonderful, fulfilling marriage.
Marriage Prep 101 is a great workshop for any couple. My partner and I have been in a long-term relationship for over a decade. The workshop was still informative and helpful to develop skills individually and collectively. If you come in with an open mind, you will be rewarded with a happy experience.
We took Marriage Prep 101 at the recommendation of friends who took this couples workshop a few years ago. We didn’t have any specific problems we felt we needed to address other than learning how to manage conflict more constructively (rare issue) but as life-learner and over achiever types we wanted to set ourselves up for success however we could.
We definitely feel like we got what we hoped for out of the class – we uncovered some challenges (or as we like to think of them – opportunities to enhance) that we now have a plan (bond) and tools (keys) to address. We were already pretty aware of our strengths (and our competitive playful personalities often had us verbalizing how ‘awesome we are together’.) It’s crazy to us that more couples don’t take a marriage prep class like Marriage Prep 101. What a critical life experience to not even expose yourself to the most basic summary of empirically validated best practices?
We will definitely recommend Marriage Prep 101 to friends and family and wish it were more culturally standard for couples to take classes like yours – what a happier world it would be.
Many thanks again.
With only two and half months until our wedding date, Matt and I were on a path to divorce before we were even married. We argued all the time about small insignificant things as well as very important life changing decisions. We knew that we needed something to help us figure things out but did not know exactly what. A marriage therapist was not our style and going to our family was not working out. I found Marriage Prep 101 during an online search and was drawn to the fact that it was not counseling, instead skills and tools to creating a great marriage. I signed us up for the next workshop.
The structure and setting of the workshop was extremely comfortable. Matt does not like being forced to talk but not once did he feel pressured. Only when he was ready did he raise his hand to share or ask for help. It was never just from the male or females perspective, it came from both of them.
Matt and I took away many great tools to keep our relationship alive, healthy and spiced up. We are able to use their expertise in all aspects of our relationship. Matt and I really needed to work on our conflict resolution approach. They gave us several tools on how to argue in a productive way and we were able to take away the two that worked best for our personalities. Their Ground Rules for Conflict Resolution have been invaluable to our lives. We both appreciated the fact that the workshop helped us focus on the positives in our relationship and not the negatives that are so easy to fall into. The 5 to 1 ratio is vital in our day to day lives. We also found their Incompatibilities Exercise helped to resolve a big issue in our house. Finally, we practice their suggested 20 second hug every morning!
Marriage Prep 101 will change the way you view your relationship with your partner. We highly recommend the workshop. Make a weekend out of it like we did by reserving a hotel room and having a nice dinner together. It will add even more value to the experience.
Dan and Michelle Joy are wonderful, they are willing to share their experiences, present the latest research and present exercises to help my fiancé and I address important topics. It is most certainly worth the investment!
In the throes of wedding planning and seemingly endless lists of “things to do” before the wedding, taking a time-out to spend such quality time with one another at Marriage Prep 101 was hands-down the best part of this blissful process so far – and that says a lot coming from a details girl! Marriage Prep 101 touches on a variety of aspects surrounding marriage and commitment with real life examples backed up by scientific research…and best of all, humor! It was so wonderful to devote that time just to US and to the importance of creating our marriage bond. And while we both felt very confident about our relationship from the onset, we appreciated the opportunity to talk through potential issues and “traps” as well as create a game plan for our marriage to get us started on the right foot. It was a way to build a foundation of communication and understanding that we may have not otherwise put the concerted effort towards creating had we not taken the class. By doing some simple excercises, it was amazing to see certain assumptions that we had about each other’s feelings and perceptions totally turned on their head, just by simply learning to communicate in a new way. Very enlightening and transformational.
Realizing that even the best laid plans often go awry, we feel ever more confident in our ability to communicate with one another and resolve conflicts “in the present” and have already reaped the many benefits of the workshop – even before our marriage has begun! We were deeply inspired by the other couples in the class and enjoyed sharing the experience with people in all different stages of relationships. We agree that this is the best investment that we’ve put towards the marriage so far, and highly recommend it to all couples seeking a healthy dose of relationship reality.
All couples should give them selves a gift of 10 hours with these talented relationship guides, Dan and Michelle, to build the foundation for a healthy long-term life together.
Marriage Prep 101 helped my fiancé and I review the elements of what it takes to have a successful marriage. We were able to identify strengths and challenges of our relationship and had the opportunity to create goals and solutions!
My fiance and I took this course and absolutely loved it! It provides a neutral setting to talk about challenging issues in the relationship and focus on the resolution.You also get to reflect on many of your strengths as well. I found the instructors to be knowledgeable and real. They do not preach about how a marriage should work in theory, they talk about the tools we can all use to make a marriage work in practice. I would recommend this course to anyone getting married. In fact my fiance and I plan to attend the course every five years.
My advice, don’t wait until you have a conflict to discuss it.Chances are at that point one of you will be defensive. This is a great way to put everything on the table and talk about it in a rational way. Thanks again!
We really enjoyed Dan and Michelle’s Marriage Prep 101 workshop. We have more tools and resources for a successful lifetime together than we did just 48 hours ago!
Dan and Michelle put on an amazing workshop that creates an environment where you and your partner can grow together. Even in a group, the entire experience felt like it was built specifically for us. The world melted away, and we really worked on US.
I truly believe that this workshop should be required for any couple on their way to the altar. At first I wasn’t sure if I’d feel safe expressing myself in a format such as this. But I really did feel ‘safe’ to speak honestly with my partner. What really rang true for myself and my fiance is the fact that the presenters brought up the term “intentional marriage” to describe a more proactive way of being married. I never thought of my future marriage in that way,but now it really makes sense. After this workshop, my fiance and I truly know where each of us stand in our hopes, views and intentions for our marriage. I know that we are in a better spot because of what we learned and overcame in the workshop. We will recommend it to anyone considering getting married. It’s INVALUABLE. It may be the best money spent during our entire wedding planning process.
We were very excited to attend Marriage Prep 101 before our wedding, and we are so glad we did. The class focuses on research-based strategies, one on one discussions and topics we think about often but didn’t have the time to bring it up in every day life. Marriage Prep 101 was well worth the investment for any couple. Thank you Dan and Michelle!
We learned so much at Marriage Prep 101, and the conflict resolution section highlighted different thought patterns and explained why some of our arguments develop in certain ways. Dan and Michelle facilitated our discussion well and the workshop was well planned out. Thank you!
We are getting married in just a few months, and this workshop gave us some very valuable skills and frameworks to improve our communication and re-assure our relationship. Thank you so much!
Marriage Prep 101 was everything we had hoped for as we rapidly approach our wedding day. Marie and I both agree that San Francisco is a wonderful venue, and wish to encourage other out-of-area couples to take the course. We used our free time to enjoy the sights and the great restaurants, while discussing the concepts, exercises, and studies you both presented. Like most couples, the time we spend together is often cloudy with busy schedules and daily dealings (and my 11 year old in the house), and we might never really be able to set aside time to work on our relationship. Marriage Prep 101 helped us to dedicate that time, with a well constructed plan of action. The Relate test, and the way you both integrate it into the curriculum, was a very useful element that otherwise would have been informative, but unintelligible – you made the science approachable. We both agree that the course helped us to discover new insights into each other’s thoughts and feelings, while also affirming the strengths in our relationship that will help us grow as a couple. In fact, we spent Sunday just enjoying each other’s company with a sort of relief that we had many of the right tools, and some new skills to use them. One of the great aspects of San Francisco is the diverse selection of restaurants and activities- far beyond what we can find at home. We enjoyed some great Italian, and a Korean restaurant (that was new for both of us) we took a Ghost Walk, and shopped for some awesome wines to take back. We hope other couples considering the workshop (or parents who wish to get them a great gift) will take our word and sign up. It is both time and money very well spent. Thanks again.
Marriage Prep 101 helped us better structure our conversations. I feel closer to my fiancé as a result and I know that we have better tools now to keep our relationship fun and stable through the years.
We are really happy that we decided to attend the Marriage Prep 101 workshop, and we felt that it was a very worth while investment in our future. We were confident in our relationship going in, but the workshop solidified that we are good partners and gave us some very practical tools that are going to be very useful for getting through challenging situations. We found the conflict resolution topic to be the most useful for us – the exercises gave us a way to talk about subjects that are usually more stressful in a very constructive way (money, how we incorporate religion, etc.), and it also highlighted some surprisingly simple insights – like the fact that you don’t have to actually solve an issue in one sitting. The format of the Marriage Prep 101 workshop works great. Lecture-style presentations are alternated with personal experiences and anecdotes, and give the couples plenty of time and good structure to go through individual exercises. As a result, the whole experience feels very productive without being too long or overwhelming. Finally, we appreciated that the workshop doesn’t have a religious affiliation – something that was important to us because we come from different religious backgrounds.
Thank you for a great experience, and we highly recommend Marriage Prep 101 to anyone who wants to strengthen their relationship!
I just want to say, Dan and Michelle, you two are great! You’re both very genuine, honest and humble which went along way in making the whole class feel open and comfortable discussing challenging topics.
I highly recommend Marriage Prep 101 even if you don’t think you and your partner need it. It is time very well spent!
Marriage Prep 101 workshop has helped us to realize what we want from our marriage–and that we are on the right path to making that happen. We know that we have decided to marry for myriad of reasons, but knowing what we want from each other sometimes gets nebulous. Your exercises in class helped to clarify our expectations and helped us to define goals for what we want our marriage to be. By the time Pete and I sat down and discussed our the “keys” and “goals” when we created out Marriage Bond, we understood that what we wrote was not just a confirmation of values we shared, but a lifetime gameplan for how to make our marriage last.I especially enjoyed the language of love exercise. I have even played the game with other couples (married and unmarried) and they too have found it interesting. Thank you for providing a way for couples to explore and appreciate their similarities and differences, enabling them to find healthy ways to build companionship and love.
Marriage Prep 101 is all about being intentional about the kind of relationship that you want to have. From signing up, to doing some pre-work, to being present and participating during the private dialogues… You get what you put in! Dan and Michelle definitely put their intention into spreading love to the class. It is very well worth the time!
Marriage Prep 101 was great! We had already done some pre-marriage work with my family’s church, but we both felt like the big questions and issues that lead to divorce were not addressed fully. We feel far more connected after the workshop and can’t wait to get married with our eyes wide open.