Attend The Pre-Marriage Course
Trusted by over 1,500,000 couples worldwide
The Pre-Marriage Course is an opportunity for you to invest in your relationship through five in person or online date nights created to help you to learn to communicate well, understand and appreciate your differences, and prepare for potential challenges.
Why choose The Pre-Marriage Course?
Relationship tools
Learn practical tools to deepen your connection and keep the spark alive.
Totally confidential
Enjoy private, intimate conversations as a couple giving you the space to engage openly and honestly throughout each session.
Tried and tested
The Marriage Course has been run in over 117 countries for over 1.5 million couples since its inception in 1996.
Insights from experts
Gain insights from interviews with leading psychologists, authors and psychosexual specialists.
In person or online
Choose to go through the course at a local venue in the company of other couples or online in the privacy of your own home.
Is the Pre-Marriage Course for us?
The Marriage Course is for couples who are married or have been living together for more than two years.
It is based on Christian principles but designed for couples with or without a Christian faith.
It is for any couple looking to build strong, solid foundations for their future together.
What can we expect on The Marriage Course?
Step 1: Eat together
At the start of each session, you will share a special meal together. This is an opportunity to unwind and connect, helping to create the romance and enjoyment of a date.
Step 2: Watch an episode
Each engaging and enriching episode explores a different topic through real experiences, expert insights and relevant teaching, with breaks for conversations.
Step 3: Talk privately
Through workbook prompts and questions, you will be invited to enjoy private, intimate conversations that help you to engage with honesty and openness throughout the session.
Over five sessions, you will explore…
Session 1: Communication
In the introductory session, you will explore expectations inherited from family and upbringing; communication styles and effective communication; the importance of recognising and expressing your feelings; and some barriers to talking. You’ll also develop an awareness of bad listening habits versus the power of reflective listening. As a couple, you’ll discuss your backgrounds and communication styles and you’ll practice a listening exercise as demonstrated in the video.
Session 2: Conflict
Session 2 emphasises that conflict in marriage is to be expected as you adjust to your differences and unpacks the unhelpful approaches of the “rhino” and “hedgehog” for dealing with anger. Nicky and Sila look at recognising and accepting our differences in areas such as money management or family norms and share about the “10 o’clock rule”. They look at five steps to help reach agreement as well as the importance of saying sorry and a practical three-step process for healing hurt.
Session 3: Commitment
This episode explores the benefits of the marriage commitment in terms of deep friendship and a strong family life, and the idea of an equal partnership with responsibilities divided up according to strengths. You’ll hear what it means to put each other’s needs above your own, looking at the marriage covenant and love that is deliberate and intentional, not just a feeling. You’ll also discuss two practical aspects of the marriage vows: dealing with finances and managing relationships with the wider family.
Session 4: Connection
Nicky and Sila look at keeping love alive during the whole course of a marriage and the deliberate choice to do so. They unpack various tools such as a weekly date night (with no phones!) and using Gary Chapman’s “five love languages” (words of affirmation, gifts or presents, quality time, kind actions and physical touch). This episode also focusses on the importance of sex in marriage, giving practical advice for good sex that is us-oriented not me-oriented and addressing the devastating effects of porn.
Session 5: Adventure
Marriage provides us with one of life’s greatest opportunities and one of its greatest challenges. In the final session, you’ll learn four requirements for working together as a team in marriage: showing daily appreciation for each other; letting go of unrealistic expectations; being prepared to change; and recognising common overreactions. Nicky and Sila also discuss the importance of a couple’s values and priorities, and the roles of the more adventuring and more nurturing partner in the relationship.
