Top: Kendall + Kylie | Pants: H & M / H & M / Macy’s {on sale} .. I played it conservative but would have worn my favorite Mother denim / Belt: Target | Shoes: INC  {on sale} / If it hadn’t been so cold, I would have wore Steve Madden / Forever21 | Bag: H & M | Lipstick: Spanish Pink | Nail Polish: Cinematic

Good Saturday Morning! I hope you had a productive week and are sipping on your morning coffee feeling content. That’s always a good goal in my book. I want to share the outfit I wore last night. But more importantly I want to share my evening with you.

My husband and I had a pleasant dinner at Cia Amicis in Brighton. Of course I had the Sea Bass .. it was amazing. My husband … Filet w/ the signature zip sauce. Yes, he was in heaven! We dined with some friends that we met about 24 years ago. We met this couple at a weekend conference that we were ‘required’ to take prior to being married in the Catholic Church. For those of you that are Catholic and married, you probably remember doing an ‘Engagement Encounter’ weekend. Many young, and even a few older couples were attending. There was probably a good 40-50 couples total the weekend we went. Although this event is designed for you & your future spouse to be extremely focused on your relationship together, you always end up talking to other couples. We could have made friends with any couple that weekend, but it ended up being this particular couple that we connected with and remained in contact with for all these years. Do I dare share how this friendship came about? Who am I trying to kid? What don’t I share? lol

Like all conferences, at the beginning of your weekend, each engaged couple are given a packet. In our packet was 2 spiral bound notebooks – one for myself & one for my husband (future husband, at that time). During your Engagement Encounter Weekend, you sit through many speakers covering different topics pertaining to the unity of marriage. After each discussion, you are instructed to go back to your hotel room. By the way, you do not share a room. Girls are roomed with other girls, guys are with guys. Sure! {sip} … oh wait this is Saturday!! Coffee sip, then! Back at your room, you sit quietly and journal in your spiral notebook. When you do your journaling, you are supposed to write your thoughts in letter form to your future spouse. So mine would be started with a ‘Dear Paul’ & my husbands was titled, ‘Dear Tracy’. Then you proceed to share your thoughts, and how it pertains to you as a couple – feelings, goals .. you get it!

I believe it was on day two (Saturday), all the couples had sat through the morning sessions. Afternoon came and back to yet another session. The speaker was done, and same routine – head back to your room, sit quietly and journal to the love of your life. Well, my husband and I decided to ever-so-sneakily take a detour, and skip out on our ‘love letter’ session and head to the hotel bar downstairs. I know, really? Shame on us!!! lol

To our surprise, one other couple decided to do the same thing! We didn’t feel so bad! We ended talking, laughing and of course cracked little jokes about the whole weekend, itself. Of course this all took place over a beverage or two. From every session on, during our break-outs, we ended up visiting with this couple and not one of us did any more journaling. A friendship developed that weekend and we have remained friends ever since.

It was a good thing that at the end of the conference you didn’t have to turn in your journal, or the Catholic Church may have never married us.

Although we didn’t have as much content in our Engagement Encounter Journals as most couples that weekend, my husband and I kept ours, and refer back to them once in awhile. It’s interesting to read what characteristics made your partner fall in love with you, what the goals were at that time, and above all else, be reminded of how much they love you … or at least did!

As for this couple, it had been a long time since our last visiting. Raising kids, job changes and just the rapid move of life got in the way. But, as soon as we all arrived at the restaurant, it was as if a day hadn’t past. Of course, we did have a good belly laugh about how we met in a bar during our ‘Engagement Encounter Weekend.

Enjoy your weekend! xo