This weekend was busy, but fun! Tony and I had our pre-cana day on Saturday that lasted from 8am to 7pm. Pre-cana is part of our marriage preparation to be able to get married in the catholic church. Wait rewind, 8am to 7pm? Whaaat? Sounds miserable, right?
First thing that came to my mind was:
plus 
My expectations, however, were blown out of the water. The day not only started off good, but it ended great!!
I'll try not to bore you too much, but I enjoyed it so much that I just really wanted to share!
The morning started off with all of the couples (there were 36 of us) introducing ourselves and stating when and where we were getting married. It was so cool to see how many of the couples would soon share your same wedding anniversary!
After the introductions, we were all asked to turn our cell phones off and drop them off in bags that had our names on them. (This was very very clever of them... They would obviously know if someone didn't turn their phone in if they had an empty bag). At first, I was a little mad that they made me hand my phone over, that thing never leaves my side. Plus, I paid so much mula for it that I don't want to risk it getting stolen, lost or broken. I tried to think of a story if they asked me why my phone wasn't in my bag but 1. who doesn't have a phone these days and 2. Tony gave me that look and said, "Jo, their gonna know you have it. Just turn it in". So hesitantly, I turned it in and then pouted like an 8th grader for a few minutes.
We all then gathered into an auditorium where we heard many presentations from married couples who have been married from 7 years to 30 years. It was not only helpful to hear their insight on married life, but it was heartwarming to see so many couples who makes their marriage work with constant love, communication and hard work. These days, if marriage gets hard, people take the easy way out. The dreaded "D" word. It was nice to hear from people who truly value the sanctity of marriage.
After an hour or so, I completely forgot I didn't have my phone, in fact, I actually sort of liked not having any distractions.
After each presentation, every couple was asked to split. The boys would leave to go to another room and the girls would stay in the auditorium. We were given questions to answer regarding that specific presentation, but relate our answers to our own relationship. So we wrote to each other about our feelings on a certain topic and then after a few minutes, music would play, symbolizing that it was time for the couples to reunite, and we would share with each other our answers.
It was actually really nice to talk about most of the subjects and to just spend the entire day with Tony (with no distractions) going over all of the things that we not only look forward to in marriage, but things that we would like to improve on to help us live a happy and healthy marriage.
We then got to play a game! Woohoo! It was like the newly wed game, only obviously we weren't newly weds. Again, the girls and boys were split up. The girls were asked questions and had to answer them how we thought our man would answer them, and the boys had to answer their questions how they think we would answer them. We were reunited to compare our answers and the couple that won received something. So yes, there was a prize on the line here. Needless to say, Tony and I lost miserably. The questions were stupid anyways. For example: Who said "I love you first"? I am 100% positive that Tony did but Tony is 100% positive that I did. Seriously... what a dumb question... who honestly remembers that kind of stuff anyways... and what girl says I love you first? Tony said it first! ;-)
Anyways... I asked the lady if there was a prize for the losing couple and she said, "Yes, counseling". What a jokster.
Before I knew it, it was 5pm. They held a mass for us so that we could sleep in on Sunday!
Praise the Lord... I love my ZzZ's
They promised us that we would be done by 7pm and by the time mass was over, it was 5:50 or so. I thought, what on earth is there left to cover for this last hour?
What was yet to come was, I think, the best surprise and the best part of this whole experience. It not only filled my heart with more confidence then ever before, but it made me feel loved, cherished, appreciated and excited for my future to come.
One by one, each couple was escorted by the day's staff out of the auditorium. We entered the gymnasium where they transformed it into a restaurant filled with 36 tables for 2. Each couple was seated at their own table, was offered wine, was served salad and dinner (chicken, green beans and potatoes), and then of course, was served wedding cake.
I couldn't believe all of the hard work these people had done for us, I truly felt blessed and gratified for this experience... and not to mention, the cake was almond flavored and from Giant Eagle.
It. Was. Delicious.
What?!? Cake! But Joanna, you gave up sweets and diet coke for lent.
I know dude, I know... I figured since priests were everywhere, it was ok. I even asked a staff member if it was ok and she said yes. Soooo I ate it. I think I deserved it anyways because I have been doing so well during lent. :-)
During this dinner however we were handed letters. The lady who organized this entire day, contacted each and every one of our families and asked them to write letters to us. Tony and I opened our manila envelopes and found letters written from my parents, his parents, his siblings and my siblings. To say the least, I was an emotional wreck after the first letter that I opened... so I saved the rest for when I got home. I am NOT a cute public crier.
Neither is Casey S. from the Bachelor.
Towards the end of the day before mass and dinner, we were all asked to write our significant others 'love letters'. We exchanged them at dinner and read them before we ate. I apologize, Tony, if this embarrasses you, but I doubt you'll read this anyways ;-). Tony's letter to me made me feel on top of the world and appreciated on a whole different level. It made me feel 10x more confident that this marriage will be an everlasting one.
Sorry I am not sorry for being a huge sap.
So Jo(W)anna know what? THE DAY WAS GREAT. The car ride home was a happy one! We both felt not only satisfied and confident, but we definitely felt like we got our money's worth! (Getting married ain't cheap!)
So to all you engaged lovers out there waiting to be wed, (and to those with hopes and dreams to be married someday), get excited for this process! It truly is an on-going learning experience about one another!
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