A Six-Week Marriage Preparation Outline

Once two people have decided they are seriously considering marriage, it helps to move from open-ended conversation to a more deliberate structure. A simple six-week outline: Week 1, understanding each other's expectations in full — not just headlines. Week 2, communication — how you will handle disagreement and daily check-ins. Week 3, finances — the practical version of the conversation you started earlier. Week 4, family — both families, expectations, and boundaries. Week 5, parenting philosophy, even if children are years away. Week 6, conflict resolution — agreeing, explicitly, on how you will handle disagreement once you are married. This is not a test to pass or fail. It is a way of making sure that by the time a decision is made, it is made with full information rather than momentum. Couples who go through a structure like this rarely regret the time it took.