10 Fun, Innovative Relationship-Building Dates for Seriously Dating and Engaged Couples! 10 Great Dates Before You Say "I Do" combines the best of marriage preparation research with a fun, easy-to-follow format. Couples will love growing together while going out
Claudia Arp and David Arp, MSW, founders of Marriage Alive International, Inc., share a passion for helping couples build great marriages through fun, relationship-building dates. The Arps introduced the dating concept when dating wasn’t cool. Today their 10 Great Dates® brand of resources including books, DVD-based programs and seminars, are popular nationally and internationally. They have authored over 30 books, including the award winning The Second Half of Marriage.
Really helpful to go through, and even fun. The book helps you create an atmosphere to talk one-on-one with your significant other and delve into conversation about personalities, preferences, expectations, styles of communication, and other topics pertinent to committed relationships... Your opinions will be challenged, and you'll probably find out some surprising things about your significant other. The books is rarely cheesy, which was a plus. Would recommend to anyone in a serious relationship, engaged, on the road to marriage, etc. You will get out of it what you put into it.
This is a great book for dating couples who are considering marriage. It will take you through 10 purposeful dates and guide you to discuss topics such as communication, dealing with conflict, finances, family and others that most couples never talk about before marriage and only a few do after engagement during pre-marriage counseling.
The messages put across by the authors resonated with me. A lot of things I already knew about my wife and it was refreshing to know that we were already on the right path. The book gives ample time to ask questions to one another and we found each other spending hours talking about what we thought until our voices hurt.
Some references have become dated like Palm Pilots, renting DVDs, and using a PDA.
This was a great launching pad for premarital discussions. We read this book with mentors, and the topics and “date nights” sparked rich and important conversations. There were some great ideas on communication that I appreciated, and the interactive parts of the book have proven to have actually benefited our marriage!
Obviously read this book a little late. We did not end up doing the exercises but it was still a good book to read and gave a good perspective on some topics that are important to work through for marriage. Definitely intended for a Christian audience.