Marriage preparation is a process to help you and your fiancée prepare for married life. Just like having a healthy diet helps prevent you getting sick, and recover more quickly when you do, marriage preparation is the same for your relationship. Studies have shown that couples who do good quality marriage preparation have a lower rate of divorce and better relationship resilience when hard times inevitably come.

Moreover, Catholic marriage (Matrimony) comes with additional obligations. It's important that you understand these before you commit to them.

SmartLoving has been working with couples for over three decades and we have refined all our insights to bring you a comprehensive course that gives you and your fiancée a safe space to ask the important questions and put your love on a solid foundation.

SmartLoving Engaged is suitable for all couples preparing for marriage in the Catholic Church. The course caters for couples of all ages, experience and religious backgrounds.

If you are a long-distance couple, frequent travelers, shift worker, or have caring commitments, SmartLoving Engaged is the perfect course for you that is both high-quality, comprehensive and flexible.

We also have many civilly married couples preparing for a Catholic recommitment ceremony and also newlyweds. The material is timeless and even mature married couples find it valuable.

At the end of each Lesson, you will complete an online quiz designed to ensure that you have understood the key concepts. You need at least 80% to advance to the next lesson and quizzes may not be attempted until you have spent a minimum one hour in the lesson. Quiz questions can be previewed in the workbooks.

At the end of the course, you will do an assessment whereby each of you separately complete a series of short answer questions. Your answers are then compiled into a report for your celebrant who may want to discuss some of your answers with you. A certificate is also generated at this time.

To make it easier for you, the questions are provided in the workbook so that you can draft your answers before you submit them. It's not a test and there are no wrong answers. The purpose of the quizzes and assessment is to help us support you and ensure that you've mastered concepts, frameworks and tools.

Yes! Your final documentation includes a certificate and a report compiling your answers to your final assessment/feedback.

Not only will your celebrant (or local priest supervisor if marrying overseas) have evidence that you have completed your marriage prep, he will have a chance to clarify anything and offer you and your partner additional support as needed.

No. There is no expiry date on your course report or certificate.

You will get the certificate when you complete all 9 lessons of the course and after you have submitted the final assessment. The certificate will be sent automatically to you via email and it will also be sent to your supervisor priest (if you have entered his email address in the supervisor field of the form).

The course has a total of nine lessons that take about 1.5 hours each to complete. We recommend that you do one lesson per week so that you have time to practice the tools and complete all the activities. Most participants take around 10-12 weeks, spending a few hours each week actively engaging with the material.

Course time locks record your total active time spent on the platform and unlock the lesson quiz once one hour has elapsed in that lesson.

You can of course, work completely at your own pace and take as little or as much time as you need. However, you can not do the course justice if you aim to complete it in less than three weeks. The material is comprehensive and really requires in-between lesson time to use the tools in your daily life so that you experience the benefits.

So don't be too hasty! Couples who rush the course generally report lower satisfaction and rate the benefits of the course lower than those who take their time. We know it's a busy time for you, so get started early in your engagement so that you can take the time you need to really get the most from this.

SmartLoving Engaged Online is flexibly designed to provide you with the best possible formation experience.

1. Ideally, you will have a Mentor Couple from your local parish to accompany you through the course, allowing you to interact with a Catholic married couple, discussing the key concepts and personal insights. If your celebrant/parish doesn't offer this option, you may have a suitable couple in your network who you can ask to be your sponsors. They simply enroll in the 'Mentor' version of the course and do the course in parallel with you. For more information, please send Mentors here.
2.  Celebrant/Supervisor  or other parish minister may wish to interact with you throughout the course either individually or in groups. The course is fully self-contained so you can begin the first lesson immediately and progress at your own pace.
3. Our online support includes our monitored forum where you can interact with our global community and a quick access help form if you need technical assistance.
4. For more direct support you can purchase a coaching session with one of our accredited SL Coaches.

In all cases, your Celebrant/Supervisor will be able to review your learning with you at the conclusion of the course.  When you get to the last Lesson, you will complete the assessment and your answers will be included with in your certificate for your celebrant to review.

All you need is a computer/tablet/mobile device with high-speed internet access, the printed workbook for you and your partner and a pen.

It is a comprehensive course that uses the power of paper and digital media to guide you through interpersonal activities with your partner.

Your course comes with a digital PDF (200 pages) of the printed handouts with permission to print one each for you. It is available to download at Lesson 0: Admin as a complete set. Alternatively, you can buy the printed copy by choosing option 2.

You cannot complete the course adequately without the workbooks.

We give you two options:

• Option 1: Print 2 copies of the workbook (a PDF download is available in Lesson 0 | Admin).
• Option 2 (recommended): Order printed workbooks by choosing option 2 on this page.

Q: We live in the UK but will be getting married in a Church in Italy. Will the certificate and course report be recognised by the Catholic Church overseas?

A: Yes. You will get a course report and certificate that should be accepted by your local priest/deacon (where you live) and then you can share that same report and certificate with the priest/deacon who will be your celebrant overseas.

Extra information: Usually it will be your local priest/deacon who is responsible for preparing you (supervising you) as you prepare for the Sacrament of Marriage.

We call them your "supervisor" and it will be important to have their full name and email address on file because we will ask you to input it when you complete your Final Assessment.  The course report and certificate will be sent to them (and to you) via email.
We recommend that your supervisor priest/deacon meets with you after you have completed the 9 lessons, to go through your course report and certificate.

After that stage you can email the celebrant priest (who is marrying you overseas) letting them know that you have completed your marriage formation.

SmartLoving Suggestion: We would suggest that you email both your local parish priest, as well as the priest who will be your celebrant overseas before you start the course and let them know that you will be enrolling in the SmartLoving Engaged online course to prepare for the Sacrament of Marriage.

If they want more information about the course, you can send them this link: https://smartloving.org/engaged-online-leaders/

We suggest you email both priests because that way everyone will be on the same page and you should not have any problems.

Here is a template email that you can adapt and use:

Dear [insert the name of your local parish priest/deacon where you live],

My fiancé (insert first name, last name) and I (insert your full name), will be getting married overseas in [insert country of wedding] on [insert date, month, year].

We will be leaving [insert name of country where you live] on [insert day, month] to travel for the wedding.

We wish to prepare for the Sacrament of Marriage by using the SmartLoving Engaged Online formation course which has ecclesiastical approval and is used by thousands of couples in Australia, USA, UK, and Asia.

We would like to ask if you could be our supervisor, which means that you would be required to meet with us at the end of the course to go through our course report and certificate. If you would like more information about what is involved, please visit this link: https://smartloving.org/engaged-online-leaders/

If you agree to being our supervisor we need your name, email, and phone number to share with SmartLoving.

Thank you for considering supporting us as we prepare for marriage, and we look forward to your response.

Kind regards,

[insert your name and your fiancé’s name].

Should you need to contact us our details are below:
[Insert your name, email address, phone number].
[Insert your fiancé’s name, email address, and phone number.

SmartLoving Suggestion: We would also suggest that you send an email to the overseas celebrant priest.

Dear [insert name of the parish priest overseas],

Thank you for being our wedding celebrant! We are being prepared for the Sacrament of Marriage locally under the supervision of [insert name of parish priest/deacon] who ministers at [insert local parish name, suburb, country] and who we have copied into this email.

We are preparing for the Sacrament of Marriage by completing the SmartLoving Engaged Online formation course which has ecclesiastical approval and is used by thousands of couples in Australia, USA, UK and Asia.
If you would like more information about the course visit: https://smartloving.org/engaged-online-leaders/

When we have completed the course, we will send you (via email) our course report and certificate which will prove our participation in the marriage preparation course.

We look forward to you being our celebrant on [insert wedding day, month, year] in your parish [insert overseas parish name, suburb, country]

Kind regards,

[insert your name and your fiancé’s name].

Should you need to contact us our details are below:
[Insert your name, email address, phone number].
[Insert your fiancé’s name, email address, and phone number.

Some terms that we use within the course include...

Celebrant:
Your Celebrant is the Priest or the Deacon that will preside over your wedding.

Supervisor:
Your Supervisor is the Priest, Deacon or Parish Leader, who is responsible for making sure you are properly prepared for the Sacrament of Marriage. *

Diocese:
Every parish community and Catholic Church is situated within a larger Diocese (or Archdiocese). Each Diocese has a Bishop or an Archbishop. During the Engaged Online course we will ask you which Diocese you are preparing for marriage in?
If you do not know, please ask your priest or email the parish where you are getting married, ask them to confirm which Diocese they belong to.

*In the case of an overseas wedding for example if there was an engaged couple that lived in Sydney, Australia but was getting married in Fiji.
Their Supervisor would be their local priest who is responsible for preparing them for the Sacrament.
The Celebrant would be the priest in Fiji who will preside the wedding.

In most situations a couple's Celebrant and Supervisor will be their parish priest. For example if you are preparing for marriage in your local parish and getting married at your local parish then your parish priest/deacon will be both your Celebrant and your Supervisor.