FOCCUS: 'stuff to talk and think about'

"I am one of the fortunate who has found the other half, the answer to all my woes and the end point to my search. This person will become my husband in less than one year."

So writes Ash O'Neill, a wedding blogger from Vancouver, Canada. Ash and her fiance took the FOCCUS marital readiness programme and writes:

I would have to be honest and say that I've learned more from this course alone than I have in almost 3 years of my relationship.

Ash continues:

I think it is tremendously helpful to have experts tell you what is good communication and what is bad communication. Also helpful is all of the writing and talking exercises we had to do surrounding things like what we like about each other, and what we think of having children.

I believe there is a certain stigma attached to these courses, and let me tell you all of mine were dispelled after we completed the program.

It gave us stuff to talk and think about, such as how large of a family we want, how we want to raise our kids, what we are going to commit to working on in our relationship and many others.

Bottom line is that it was a good experience and I think we are more prepared than ever to become married.