Conference for the Engaged

Dan and I attended the Conference for the Engaged this weekend. It was a lot different than we expected. I guess going into it we thought it would be a lot of group discussion, with maybe 10 other couples present. Oh, no no, nothing like that at all – which I must say, was a good thing. I wasn’t really in the mood to have touchy-feely talks with strangers. There were about 75 couples there and we sat through a series of lectures for nearly 8 hours.

We heard from a priest and two married couples – one married for 43 years and the other for six. The topics ranged from intimacy to finances to parenting, but primarily focused on Jesus and God. Actually, the couple that has been married for 43 years – Bev and Bob – were fantastic. And Bev reminded me of my Aunt Peggy. Although, Bob didn't bear too many similarities to Uncle Ralph. Bev and Peggy sort of look alike in a way and Bev is very active in the church, as is Peggy. They teach CCD and marriage prep together, very sweet couple. At one point, Bob shocked us a tad. I think his comment actually snapped us out of our after-lunch nap we were secretly taking with our eyes open. He was talking about the importance of communication and never going to sleep at night without resolving a fight and he said, "If you really want to resolve a fight, fight naked." Come again, Bob? Wasn't expecting that one - and that is why he doesn't remind me of my Uncle Ralph! I can't imagine him standing in front of a room full of couples talking about communication and fighting naked. Hmm...next topic!

We had to wear name tags at this function with our names, parishes and wedding dates. As you can imagine, there were tons of 7-7-07 brides (and grooms). It's actually a cult I think. I was tooling around on The Knot's Web site the other day and reading some of the message boards. I noticed a ton of postings "calling all 7-7-07 brides" and those brides were posting with these fancy graphic signatures with the date. It is a pretty cool day, but I think we have some brides getting a little crazy over it. Today, my coworker told me that she saw a segment on the morning news about one 7-7-07 bride that is getting married at 7:07 p.m. and had seven bridesmaids, seven groomsmen. Whew, that's tiring. And it's funny because last year everyone was fearing the spawn of satan on 6-6-06!

I think that we have the "sleeper" date, 9-8-07. After July 7 passes, that is the second coolest day of the year:)

Also - Dan is out of town until Thursday. He says he'll give everyone his take on the Conference for the Engaged when he gets back.