We arrived with our friends Cathie and Aidan who are also getting married in March and sat down to a lovely dinner with the other 12 or so couples that were also at the weekend. The weekend was quite intense but it was just so lovely to get away from all the stresses of life and spend time and energy focussing on eachother and our future together. There were about 12 topics covered in the weekend, so it was pretty full on! The course was lead by three couples - not super couples who have everything right but just normal people - and covered a huge range of topics. At the end of each session we had some questions to answer. The men would go off to their rooms and the women would stay in the meeting room to write their own answers to the questions in a notebook and then we would meet up in our rooms in private to swap books and discuss our answers! It was fascinating seeing what eachother wrote! Some topics had us pushed for time as we had so much to chat about, whereas others we had plenty of time to spare.
On Saturday afternoon we had a walk together after lunch before the afternoon and evening sessions. The views from the centre were so lovely - fields of horses and rolling hills. Very scenic! On the saturday evening we had a time all together just chatting with drinks and snacks and comfy chairs which was nice, however I was super tired so I went to go to bed at around half 10. Simon came to say goodnight, but we ended up just chatting for about 2 hours about all sorts of stuff! It was really good fun, but I was definitely tired the next day!
On Sunday we had more sessions, and a big roast dinner for lunch. Afterwards there was a short service before we got packed up and headed home! Coming back, we felt like we had been away for weeks! On the weekend, Simon realised that our wedding is under 4 months away and we haven't really planned that much, so we did a bit of brainstorming on Sunday evening. Things are about to get busy! After Christmas it'll be planning central for us!
For anyone who is engaged I would definitely recommend this weekend! It was great to get away and chat about topics that are important but hadn't crossed our minds before! The main highlight for me was just chilling out with Simon to be honest. The amazing thing is, the weekend was free as the charity works by having your weekend paid for in advance by donations! So yes, if you are engaged, book it! You won't regret it.
http://www.engagedencounter.org.uk/
