Catholic Marriage Prep Builds Foundations for Families

Cassidy Van Slyke Blenke reflects on her Catholic wedding preparations and how they helped prepare her for the future with her husband.

When I think back to my wedding day on June 11, 2016, on occasion, outside of my yearly anniversary, it’s not the reception, dancing, or even 6-tiered wedding cake that immediately comes to mind, it’s the ceremony itself, and the journey to receiving Communion. 

Wedding planning: much more than the dress and the bouquet  

As I planned for our wedding, I was so consumed with excitement surrounding my white satin dress, gorgeous bouquets, table assignments, and the busyness of material preparations. Although my faithful preparations where the beginning of our family seedlings were being planted, created from above, a preview of what was to come, where my future husband and I began to lay the groundwork in front of God truly became the focus. 

The hustle and bustle and mania of managing different families, dynamics, and all their new idiosyncrasies almost deemed too much for me in those early times, while I was trying so hard to just focus on us, the newly emerging couple soon to be husband and wife. Reflecting on those beautifully stressful moments of premarital preparations and planning, it’s a vital reminder that I must bring that same purpose of us, husband and wife, a true partnership, in front of God, to the same forefront of our lives now, so many years later. 

How marriage prep helped form our family foundation  

Even though we now have four wild young children, extremely full schedules, demanding jobs, and the daily stressful pull of being a high functioning faithful parent and adult child, I shall gently remind myself to pause, take a second, and recall that without “us” there will be no “everything else.”  

Among the many blessings that God has showered upon us in Christ is the blessing of marriage, a gift bestowed by the Creator from the creation of the human race … It is a source of blessing to the couple, to their families, and to society and includes the wondrous gift of co-creating human life. (USCCB, Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan, 2009) 

My husband and I are the foundation of our family. And walking through pre-Cana and a Catholic wedding and RCIA journey, for me, gave me the courage to take another person's hand in front of God, and trudge toward the future with faith, hope, courage, and grace. Most importantly, all the while ignoring all the “noise,” distractions, and outside input while we continued to walk on the twisty turns.  

When I pull the busy wedding memories to the sidelines and refocus on what matters most to me, it’s the forever partnership that formed that day between myself, and my husband, banded together by God, at Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Chicago as we embarked on a new journey together, not necessarily being able to conceptualize what our future could possibly hold for us. 

I encourage readers (myself included) to continue to reflect on pre-marriage preparations and refocus on what originally brought our two souls together, then find ways to reconnect and home in our beautiful connection together, holding hands, under God.  

More information on marriage preparation and resources can be found at USCCB.org. 

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Copyright 2024 Cassidy Van Slyke Blenke
Images by Pen Carlson Photography, all rights reserved; used by permission of the author.