Marriage Preparation
Preparing you for more than a wedding.
Premarital preparation gives you space to have the important conversations before marriage, rather than discovering them for the first time afterward.
Four sessions with us. Eight modules you work through together in between. The workbook and the book arrive at your door before the first one.
The wedding gets a year of planning. The marriage gets none.
Your wedding lasts a day. Your marriage is meant for a lifetime. Almost every couple gets that backwards, and nobody blames them for it, because the day has a deadline and the marriage does not.
The Day
Twelve months of planning.
A venue, a guest list, a menu, a playlist, a seating chart.
Six hours, and then it is over.
The Marriage
No preparation at all.
Money, family, conflict, children, faith, rest.
The rest of your life.
Marriage preparation is four conversations you would otherwise have for the first time as an argument. Not because anything is wrong, but because nobody ever sat you down and asked.
We use a curriculum, not a conversation starter.
Most premarital preparation is a few good chats and a handout. Yours follows Get Your Ship Together, a curriculum written by people we know personally, built around three things a marriage actually runs on: your life, your love, and the legacy the two of you leave.
You do the modules together at home. We work through what comes up in the sessions. The uncomfortable parts are the point.
Shortened to GYST, it is the premarital curriculum behind every session we run in San Diego and across Southern California.
Life
- Identity and purpose
- Healing and wholeness
- Habits and discipline
- Priorities and clarity
Love
- A healthy partnership
- Standards and boundaries
- Discernment and wisdom
- Emotional maturity
Legacy
- Stewardship and generosity
- Leadership and influence
- Faithfulness and integrity
- Long term impact
The eight modules
- 01
Captain vs Stowaway
Choose ownership over drifting, and build on the only foundation that holds.
- 02
Finding a First Mate
Choosing a partner with your eyes open. Sexual integrity, intimacy and money, all on the table.
- 03
Ish Happens
Name the patterns and the wounds you are carrying, and do the healing work before the wedding rather than after it.
- 04
What Do You Want?
Get aligned on vision and values, then run the HCLT Test on your relationship.
- 05
Surviving Shipwrecks
Learn to fight well, repair quickly, and build the resilience every marriage needs.
- 06
Who's In Your Crew?
Put mentors and accountability around your marriage, and set honest boundaries with family.
- 07
Communication and Conflict
Get the assumed conversations onto paper, and name the red flags before the wedding day.
- 08
Final Destination
Build a marriage with a mission, and finish with a clear eyed final checkpoint.
We did not pick this one off a shelf.
Get Your Ship Together was written by people we know and trust, and we have watched it work on couples we care about. We are licensed to use it, and we pay for that licence gladly, because the couples who wrote it deserve to have it in more hands.
Ready or Knott?
A sixteen question readiness assessment drawn from all eight modules. Ten minutes, and you each get a grade, the areas where you personally have room to grow, and the places the two of you are quietly sailing in different directions.
It is free, and you do not have to book anything to take it.
What we talk about
Together we'll talk honestly and practically about the areas that shape a healthy marriage.
- Communication
- Conflict
- Expectations
- Finances
- Family and in-laws
- Intimacy
- Friendship
- Personality differences
- Faith and values
- Roles and responsibilities
- Dreams and goals
- Building a shared vision for your life
The work is understanding each other more deeply, and building tools that serve the marriage for years.
Great marriages don't happen accidentally.
Starting at $600
Marriage Prep
Four sessions with us, the eight module Get Your Ship Together curriculum, and the workbook and book posted to your home before you begin.
- Four premarital preparation sessions
- The eight module Get Your Ship Together curriculum
- A workbook that is yours to keep
- A book posted to your home before you begin
Starting at $1,595
$1,790 bought separately. You save $195.
The Marriage Experience
Prepare for the wedding. Invest in the marriage.
You should not have to choose between the ceremony and the marriage. We prepare for both.
*Assessment subject to the assessment provider's eligibility, certification, and fee requirements.
- Four premarital preparation sessions
- The eight module Get Your Ship Together curriculum
- A workbook that is yours to keep
- A book posted to your home before you begin
- Relationship assessment*
- In-depth ceremony consultation
- Fully personalized ceremony
- Your story incorporated into the ceremony
- Personal vow coaching
- Wedding rehearsal
- Wedding-day officiating
- Marriage-license guidance
- 6-month marriage check-in
Signature
Starting at $2,150
$2,390 bought separately. You save $240.
The First Year
Prepare for the wedding. Then keep going.
Everything in The Marriage Experience, including the eight module Get Your Ship Together curriculum, and then four more sessions across your first twelve months of marriage, at roughly one month, three months, six months and a year.
Most couples get all of their support before the wedding and none of it afterward, which is exactly backwards. The first year is where the theory meets an actual shared bank account.
- Everything in The Marriage Experience
- Four sessions across your first year, at one, three, six and twelve months
- Continued access between sessions
- A first anniversary conversation
Building your marriage on faith?
We also offer explicitly Christ-centered marriage preparation for Christian couples.
Love Marriage Co. provides premarital education, coaching, and marriage preparation, not psychotherapy or clinical mental-health treatment. Couples needing clinical counseling can be referred to an appropriately licensed professional.
Let's prepare for more than a wedding.
Twenty minutes, no cost, no pressure. We talk about your day and whether we are the right fit.