We’re getting married in July in my childhood church in Winchester. The priest told us we’d need to go on a marriage preparation day. My fiancé, Freddy’s not religious and was a bit nervous and a little sceptical about the whole thing. When I told my friends about the course, they were taken aback because they’ve never heard of anything like this.

The couple running the course were really nice and funny, and I knew of their family growing up, so we felt at ease. They used lots of different presentation styles throughout the day, so it made it fun and interesting, I’m a visual learner so that really stuck in my mind as a useful way to help me listen actively.

Throughout the course, there was a real emphasis that marriage isn’t easy or straightforward for anyone, and every couple will have issues; having problems in your marriage is normal. The course highlighted the importance of speaking to each other, especially if there’s an issue. We realised we mustn’t ignore the small things but speak about them openly and this will strengthen our marriage and help us build on our relationship.

We also realised that reflecting on our relationship is so important. We’ve been thinking so much about the wedding day itself, but now we see that we should also be thinking about what comes after, and the rest of our lives too.

Although it’s a Catholic course aimed at people getting married in Catholic churches, there’s so much in it that’s relevant for every couple. I thought it was brilliant and spoke so highly of it afterwards to my friends! I think they were quite surprised! I’d definitely recommend it to anyone.