Wedding Customs & Traditions Forum

Question about Catholic Engagement encounter

For those of you who are Catholic and married, what did you do at your Engagement encounter? We have to decide if we want to do the weekend long trip which is $400 or the 8 hour single day encounter which is $120. We're also taking pre-cana classes. The deacon says if we do the single day encounter, we won't be missing much but both my mom and sister went to the weekend long encounters so I'm worried about what I'm missing out on. The money is making me hesistate though. If I'm not missing much, then I don't want to spend $400 but I want to be as prepared as possible. Any advice?

Re: Question about Catholic Engagement encounter

  • emmaaaemmaaa mod
    First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its First Answer
    edited September 2014
    I can't be of any help on this topic because I am not Catholic. Howeber, if you don't get many responses here, check out the Catholic Weddings board here-> http://forums.theknot.com/categories/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings


  • DH & I had the option of either the engaged encounter or meeting with a sponsor couple.  We chose the sponsor couple because it fit better with our schedule (we had other commitments the weekends the EE weekend was offered in our diocese). 

    I assume the price difference takes into consideration the accommodations for an overnight stay.  I've heard nothing but good things from couples who did the EE weekend.  In my opinion, if it's done well, it should be a good investment in your marriage.  It is probably different based on your diocese, though.  @flantastic, did you do the Engaged Encounter weekend?
  • I think it depends on your relationship.  My husband and I chose the one day class - which was MORE than enough for the two of us.  There were two incredibly preachy sessions regarding natural family planning, a fantastic speaker who is a marriage and family therapist and spoke about how to communicate (great for anyone, not just pre-cana), and a general session on marriage and faith with breaks for couples to answer questions separately and then discuss answers together (sections included things like how we expected to break up housework, who would work, how to handle pressures from outsiders/in-laws and guided questions about why we love each other).  

    Absolutely none of this information was new to us, or anything that we hadn't discussed before - but I actually enjoyed the structured discussion between the two of us.  

    That being said, it sounds like one of my worst nightmares to have to do this for an entire weekend getaway and be forced to interact with other couples for that long - even if it was the same price.   I don't know what the heck would happen over 2-3 days that we didn't touch on in the "express" class.  

    Again, this really depends on the two of you.  We saw this more as an obstacle we had to overcome in order to get married (for the record, I am a practicing Catholic) in the Catholic church than something we were excited about and looking forward to because everything that was presented was information that we as a couple had already discussed and decided our feelings about.  
  • emmaaa said:
    I can't be of any help on this topic because I am not Catholic. Howeber, if you don't get many responses here, check out the Catholic Weddings board here-> http://forums.theknot.com/categories/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings

    Thank you! I didn't see that board. 

    and thank you to everyone who responded. I'm mulling over your replies. 
  • JMS62415 said:
    emmaaa said:
    I can't be of any help on this topic because I am not Catholic. Howeber, if you don't get many responses here, check out the Catholic Weddings board here-> http://forums.theknot.com/categories/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings

    Thank you! I didn't see that board. 

    and thank you to everyone who responded. I'm mulling over your replies. 
    You're welcome, it is actually pretty hard to find. There are many ladies here though that are Catholic and have ample advice!

  • H & I did the one day Engaged Encounter. It was split into a few different topics: NFP, communication, etc. Each topic was presented by a married Catholic couple. Then we would break up into smaller groups and lead a discussion on that topic with one of the married couples as leaders. Then sometimes, we broke off into couples to discuss. Lastly, a priest oversaw the whole thing. What was great about our priest that day was that he was one of the English Angelican priests who converted to Catholic - so he was married! So it was great to have the entire day and all presentations offered by married people who have "been there." We finished the day with Mass.
  • We did the weekend engaged encounter.  It was really only about 10 hours of "program" time.  We also did a dinner and a campfire, then mass on Sunday.  The extra money probably went to the hotel rooms (that we had to sleep in separately) and the extra meals.  

    It was fun and kind of a neat throwback to college retreat events, but I would have done a one day option if it had been available.
  • I think we're going to do the single-day EE. Thanks for all your responses. 
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards