Before You Plan Your Wedding…Plan Your Marriage

This seminar, for engaged couples, is based on what Greg and Erin wish they had known before they got married and what they would do differently if they could do it all over. Of course, they also did a lot of things right! So they want to highlight those things, too. They also draw upon their years of counseling premarital couples, tap into the most recent available research, and reveal the answers to the 5,000 couples they surveyed regarding the most critical premarital issues. So engaged couples get to inherit the learning curve of thousands of happily married couples.

The Smalleys hope that when the seminar is over, engaged couples will be ready to stand excitedly on a platform, about to say their vows, armed with a high level of knowledge and skills and self-awareness, empowered to create a strong and vibrant marriage—one that is Christ-centered, satisfying, and lasts for a lifetime.

Benefits

Learn why two open hearts are so essential for a great marriage.
Learn how to keep hearts open by creating safety in a relationship.
Learn what is at the root of every conflict and the "dance" that we get stuck in when we react to people when they push our buttons.
Learn how to break the "dance" through relational responsibility by using Heart Talk and teamwork.

Overview of Sessions

The Heart of Marriage - Our heart is the wellspring of life and relationships. "Guarding our heart" means that we learn how to take great care of our heart and to keep our heart open to God and others.

The Safest Place on Earth - The goal for every engaged couple should be to learn practical steps to create a future marriage that feels like the safest place on earth.

The Fear Dance - Every person, single or married gets stuck in a very frustrating relationship dance when we react because our emotional "buttons" get pushed.

Personal Responsibility - To have a healthy and passionate marriage, people must learn how to take personal responsibility when their emotional buttons get pushed and how to get their heart back open.

Caring for Your Heart - Your ability to feel emotionally safe in relationships depends more on your ability to keep your heart open and full of God's love because you can't give what you don't have.

Caring for your Mate's Heart - Instead of judging how people feel, we have an opportunity to "care" for our partner's heart by using Heart Talk. Heart Talk allows you to listen, understand, validate, and care about each other's hearts-their emotions and feelings.

Relational Responsibility - When we act like teammates, we remember that the only possible outcome in our marriage is that we will either "win" together or we will "lose" together. The key is to find solutions that feel good to both people.

Please fill out the contact form for availability and other questions, and someone will contact you.

Recommended Schedule

Friday Night 7-10pm
Saturday Morning 8:30am-12:30pm

What others say

Thank you for your precious transparency this weekend. We are changed people and a changed couple as a result of your awesome leadership and sharing.
Tanya

Thank you for your time this weekend. You wrote astute advice and indelible stories on our hearts and for that we are blessed.
David

Greg and Erin gave us some great tools, and we felt like we could listen to them all day!
Brian and Karen

My fiancé and I attended the engaged seminar. We didn't have a chance to thank you afterwards, so I wanted to let you know that both of us really appreciate the time that you and your wife took to prepare that and present the information to all the couples. We walked away with a lot of really good advice and things to strengthen in our relationship before we even get married.
Jenny