What is “Love and Cherish”?
Love and Cherish is for couples to explore together what Marriage will mean for them. It runs over just one weekend from Friday evening to Saturday lunchtime. It is not residential. Up to 6 couples with a facilitating couple will discuss together and privately a range of topics about Marriage. It includes
        Really Knowing each Other
        Tools for Communicating
        Exploring inner Hopes and Ambitions
        Resolving Conflict
        The Meaning of Commitment

Although about half the time couples participate in a group there is absolutely no need for couples to do anything they do not wish to:

No....Having to say what is private
    No.....Role plays
        No.....Test !

For the other half of the time couples discuss topics on their own, well away from the other couples. This is a rare opportunity for you to focus on what your marriage is all about– you and your relationship.

What is Love and Cherish about?

We might prepare for our wedding day for a year or more. Church, Reception, Clothes, Honeymoon all take time and effort and money to arrange. Preparing ourselves; knowing what we want, knowing who we want, understanding commitment, overcoming disappointment, giving love and accepting love take many years to understand and are hardly ever finished. They are a few of the aspects of being in a permanent married relationship that we can’t get “off the peg”. Its not easy to do well. It’s difficult to keep doing well.

Love and Cherish provides some ways of looking at Marriage and allows couples to explore, alone or with others, some techniques for communicating with their partner.

The weekend is open for any couple who intend to get married. Couples who marry in church will be recommended to use the weekend as part of their preparation.

The weekend is presented by trainer couples who between them have many years experience in working with couples preparing for marriage.

There is no cost to you. In most cases the weekend is arranged for engaged couples through the church in which they are to be married. The cost of the programme is then included in the stipends for the wedding ceremony.

The programme normally runs every month. However there is usually a high demand and so couples are advised to enrol 6 months to a year before their wedding day. The weekend session is held in one of the churches in central Fareham and runs from 7.30pm to 10pm on a Friday. Then from 9.30am, finishing at 1pm, on Saturday.

Couples who have been together a long time find the weekend enjoyable and valuable too. The topics and private talking points provide the opportunity to review or uncover differing assumptions!
Delighted participants have included couples who

• have been together for 15 years,
• been widowed and are remarrying
• been happily married 25 years

If couples have circumstances which make participating in the session difficult then it may be possible to assist; mention this at the enrolment session.