We enjoyed the marriage encounter weekend with its candid testimonials by couples and communication exercises (where you each write out your thoughts and share out with your partner after). This was a required element for a Catholic marriage. The only cons was the donation portion of the retreat. The last of the 2.5 day retreat was spent approx. 1- 2 hours on talks then the rest of the half day on donations. One of the speakers told us that the entire weekend cost $3500 so if anyone would like to donate that they would take check or card. She then said "if you can only pay $350" that that would be ok too and that we could post date a check or tell them what month in the future to run the credit card # (I am assuming if we can't afford it now). Then we were told to spend a whole hour contemplating and deciding how much to donate and how much the weekend was worth it and for us to pay it forward, etc. Don't get me wrong, the weekend was enjoyable, but it was really about putting thoughts to paper and sharing them. There were no other specific techniques that were taught. The $350 fee is reasonable looking at the breakdown of the fees (see below). But the way they pitched it and had us spend an hour contemplating it was strange. I would have much rather if they told us before the weekend how much we should pay instead of only letting us know that we will be asked a donation at the end. I would also suggest to the organization to provide a breakdown of fees/costs to the participants instead of providing a seemingly random number as the desired donation target amount. This would provide a more concrete and rational reason for the donation. (Cost breakdown: You pay $110 per couple for registration prior to the retreat weekend. I am assuming this goes straight to the Worldwide Marriage Encounter organization for the workbooks as well as other materials they provide the speakers as well as admin fee. The speakers are volunteers and the facility is at a religious retreat site. You also get three meals (salads, sandwich, pasta, etc.) I will estimate the site to be $800 a day or $2400 rental for the weekend, meals to be $20 each or $120 per couple. Assuming there were 10 couples, that is about $320 a couple. Given the initial registration fee, that would be a total of $430 a couple for the weekend.) read more

My husband and I have been on several Marriage Encounter weekends. We have been blessed on everyone of them. We have experienced Rookie weekend, anniversary and returno weekends. We enjoyed everyone and still use the tools we have been taught on the weekend. We are now happily married for 48 years! And it is never too soon to make a rookie weekend because we were only married 9 months at the time, when we made our first weekend! It was a good thing we did because we were dealing with a lot of family issues that could have ruined our new marriage! With The weekend and the help of God prepared us to deal with all of the problems We had to deal with it the time! We attended several ME conventions over the years, and would meet once a month for home meetings. And met. wonderful loving people along the way! And made many lasting friendships! May God continue to bless the Marriage Encounter community and keep it going! This world needs us! "There will never ever be another "You"! read more

Marriage Encounter - Sal and Loris M. From Long Island, NY 2025 - Religious Organizations Near Me - Elizabeth, New Jersey

My wife and I consider our Marriage Encounter weekend one of the least pleasant experiences of our married lives. Over 35 years ago, former friends pressured us until we agreed to attend a Marriage Encounter weekend. They refused to answer our questions about Marriage Encounter; instead, they urged us to "trust them." They backed us into a corner, finally offering to babysit our four children for the weekend. How could we say no? Big mistake! Boring, tedious, monotonous scarcely begin to describe our Marriage Encounter experience. Marriage Encounter billed the weekend as a "crash course" in a technique of couple communication. This artificial technique, called dialogue, involved writing one's feelings in a notebook, then exchanging the notebook with one's spouse, then talking about what each had written. Marriage Encounter expected devotees to continue with this contrived communication method for the remaining years of their marriage. We went at the zenith of the movement in New Jersey, when Marriage Encounter was scraping the bottom of the barrel for "team couples." We know this, because on our weekend the teams were definitely not top notch. Marriage Encounter has been dying a slow death for thirty years. Our relationship with our former friends never recovered. read more