The aim of pre-marriage courses is to provide couples with the tools to build a healthy marriage that will last a life time.

At St John's, Pre-marriage and Relationships Skills Courses are open to all couples contemplating marriage, whether marrying at St John's or elsewhere.

While planning a wedding is important, it is even more important to make plans for the  longer lasting celebration - marriage.

 A pre-marriage course is an opportunity for couples to identify their hopes and dreams for the future and to get into the habit of keeping the lines of communication open and effective. So while planning a wedding is important, planning a marriage is an investment for the future?

 "How we can draw upon our resources to work through it together?"

 Contrary to popular belief, it's not our differences, but rather how we handle them that determines how well we navigate marriage. Successful marriages are ones in which both partners take responsibility for their actions and contribute fully to making their relationship work.

 Couples who do not address critical issues such as finance, religion, family, etc., risk running into serious disagreements that could upset their lifelong journey. Pre-marriage courses can help couples uncover important issues that they may be uncomfortable discussing and provide ways of addressing these issues effectively before they become a problem. The goal is to get couples to talk in order to build a successful marriage.

Your wedding is one day - the marriage is the rest of your lives.

 A course can:

• Affirm the strengths in your relationship
• Clarify the expectations you both have for the marriage and for each other
• Help couples resolve conflict constructively
• Avoid negative exchanges
• Increase emotional and sexual intimacy
• Create a solid foundation for a healthy and rewarding marriage

How effective is a pre-marriage course in preventing divorce?

Studies show that marriage preparation classes can lower the divorce rate. While no course will help you avoid divorce if both partners are not committed to the marriage, research suggests that if couples develop the important skills of communicating, addressing and resolving conflicts while they are building intimacy and friendship, they will have far fewer triggers to divorce.

When should we take a marriage preparation class?

Because courses are targeted at improving relationship skills, there is no one answer to this question. Newlywed couples can get as much benefit from marriage classes as engaged couples.

However, it is usually within the first few years of a relationship that couples are most open, willing and motivated to work together to build and strengthen their marriage.

This is the same time when most of the serious relationship challenges occur, so developing good conflict resolution skills early on will help diffuse problems before they become serious relationship issues.

What Couples Said About Our Courses

We just wanted to thank you again for all your wonderful work at the course, we walked in a little tense and out more in love : ) So thank you for that gift. Aliesha & Shaun

I've been meaning to get in touch since our marriage course on 21 and 22 Nov to tell you we got so much out of the two days. Both working full time and busy with life, I must admit that we were not overjoyed to be giving up a precious weekend, but after the first day we were so glad we came. Since then we have put a lot we learnt into practice, it's amazing what concentrating on your relationship will do, mostly for the really little things. So thank you. And your personality and experience really made it for us. So again, a big thank you. Melanie & William

Hi adorable Gay,
Jay and I would love to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your time, love and knowledge. You are truly an amazing soul!
We thoroughly enjoyed the course and thought it was a necessity, I have been recommending it to all my friends. Lidiya & Jay

Thank you again for the course, it was such a great experience and really made us both feel even more excited about being married to each other. We've gone out and bought the Love Conversation Starters this week and can't wait for our next date night to use them! Jane G.

.... thank you so much for the wonderful past couple of weeks running the pre-marriage course at St John's. You would not believe how difficult it was to convince Con that it would be a good idea and to get him to even consider going, but after the very first session he was so happy and getting so much out of it it immediately became something we both looked forward to. As funny as it sounds now we both wish it could keep going every Thursday.
I have always felt that God always puts things in our path for a reason, to help us when we least expect it and this is one of those situations. Maria-Jose S.

We would like to thank you again for running such a helpful and enjoyable marriage preparation course on the weekend of 12/13 April. It was great to meet you and we really felt that we learned many helpful tools to assist us in our future together. Upon completion of the course we were even more excited about our upcoming wedding! Genevieve H.

Thank you also for providing a wonderful course, we both really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it - in fact you have inspired me, this week, I have decided to enrol on a counselling course! Heather T.

Jackie and Malcolm both expressed how wonderful the course was and in particular the way you personally conducted the weekend. They were just so pleased that it was mandated and have actively begun spruiking the course to others already. The Rev'd Tony Wicking

We wanted to say a huge thank you for such a great course you hosted over the weekend. Craig and I really enjoyed it and got so much out of it, and we thought you were absolutely fantastic in how you presented and held the class. You were so warm, knowledgeable and interesting.
We would highly recommend your course to anybody. It is such a wonderful and important thing to do before marriage. We feel closer as a result of finding out more about each other, and very confident in our future together.
Thank you once again and it was so lovely to meet you. Bindy and Craig

The course was great, good interaction, no pressure and no preaching. Brendan & Prudence

It was all very useful, relevant and important.... Beautifully balanced & Gay was so warm, fun & engaging. Thank you. Gabrielle & Nigel

Everything was fantastic! Gay you are a very talented presenter and I was engaged throughout. Perfect...thanks so much. Excellent presentation & co-ordination... it was all relevant. Rachael & Balaji

Fantastic content, delivery & engagement. Possibly not just for pre-marriage couples but every couple.
Really fantastic - Gay did a great job @ facilitating & tailoring the course to everyone's differing needs & pace. I really enjoyed the time set aside for us to discuss things as a couple. Gay, you did an absolutely fantastic job at engaging everyone & making everyone feel comfortable - one of the best workshops I have participated in (and I do lots with work!) Emily & David

Well presented, engaging, relevant & interactive Trent & Julia

Excellent course - helped me to explore some areas I hadn't really thought about... good balance of activities, not just a lecture! A dynamic and charismatic facilitator. Claire B.