Engaged Archives

Tips for the Engaged and Charting

We are an engaged couple preparing for marriage. My fiancé and I are Catholic and talked a lot about our beliefs when we were first dating. One of those was Natural Family Planning (NFP). When we first got engaged, I made an appointment with a doctor who upheld Catholic teachings in her practice — including…

You’re Beautiful…Believe it!

From the Family Foundations archives **** When I was in the fourth grade, I was lucky enough to sit in the back of Mrs. Flanagan’s classroom with my very best friend — near enough to whisper, pass notes and raise our eyebrows significantly at each other. Lisa and I had one of those friendship where you live…

Man to Man: Advice from NFP Grooms

From the Family Foundations archives **** She said yes! Great! Now what? There’s finding a church, ordering food, booking the DJ and photographer. It’s enough to make a guy go nuts! The recently engaged and married fellows interviewed by Family Foundations offered a few pointers for men preparing to take the big step. From learning how to argue…

6 Books to Read Before you get Married

Congratulations! You’re engaged! Phew, do you have a lot of work ahead of you. It will be easy to get caught up in the details of the big day, so take it from someone who’s just a month away from her own wedding: make a point to slow down and put some preparation towards the…

5 Ways to Get More Out of Marriage Prep

I’m currently four months deep in an 8-month engagement. As I write this, my fiancé is in a U-Haul moving across the country, where he’ll stay until I move and join him after the honeymoon. As we are back again in a long-distance relationship and because he is not Catholic, much of the planning and…

My Vocation isn’t Marriage

Marriage was never an option in my discernment. I could tell from my gifts, interests, strengths and weaknesses that my calling would be something particularly unconventional. Marriage? Dull. Kids? Adorable, but spiritual motherhood fosters a much bigger family and is far more frequently neglected. The second stop for my discernment train was clearly religious life.…

For Richer or Poorer

From the Family Foundations archives **** Thirty years ago it was all different. There was a ring, a white dress and an “I do.” There were chicken and mashed potatoes, an open dance floor and an overjoyed couple ready to start their lives together as husband and wife. Now, as 20- and 30-somethings prepare to say “I…

NFP Uncensored: Engaged and Charting

NFP Uncensored is a series of candid accounts of the way NFP informs every aspect of life. You can follow the posts by searching for “NFP Uncensored” here in the Living the Love blog (use the search bar on the righthand side of this page), or by searching #NFPUncensored on social media. Isn’t it romantic…