The Marriage Preparation course was written by Nicky and Sila Lee, who have been married for over 30 years and speak regularly on relationships and marriage preparation. They are co-authors of The Marriage Book.

The evenings are designed for couples who want to develop strong foundations for a lasting marriage. While based on Christian principles, the course is relevant and helpful for any couple with or without a Christian faith or church background.

Over five evenings spent together you will learn important tools that will enable you to make your marriage work. The evenings are very relaxed. There is usually a meal followed by short talks interspersed with exercises and questions for you to discuss together as a couple.

There is no group work, and you will not be asked to share your discussions with anyone else. Each couple has the chance to discuss issues with a married 'support couple' if they wish.

Topics covered include:

• Communication
• Commitment
• Resolving conflict
• Keeping love alive
• Shared values

The Marriage Preparation Course is run by NCSN co-ordinators and Marriage Advisors across the UK. Find out if there is a course being run in your area here.

Cost: Varies - contact your local co-ordinator for more details.

What people said:

'The Marriage Preparation Course was invaluable to us as a couple. Although we had been going out together for 4½ years and so thought we knew everything under the sun that there was to know about each other, we learnt so much and benefited from it immensely. We thoroughly enjoyed each evening.'

'Discussing new issues was a challenge, yet very rewarding and I feel drew us closer together. It was interesting to find that with most issues we had not yet discussed we had the same feelings.'

'We had issues that both of us were too scared to bring up, but did during the course.'

'Without a doubt talking over the issues was beneficial to us. We have really tried to do things differently and put each other first.'