What We Learned About Our Couples in 2018
In 2018 alone, over 5,000 couples from around the world enjoyed our online marriage preparation experience!
Having served more engaged Catholic couples than any other provider, we have learned a great deal about the couples themselves, how they found us, and their experience from start to finish.
We are excited to empower you with this knowledge as you minister to today’s Catholic couples!
The Average Age of the Bride and Groom on their wedding day is:
- 29 years old for the Bride
- 31 years old for the Groom
According to the US Census Bureau the national average is 27 years for women and 29 for men. From this we can learn that Catholic couples are waiting almost two years longer than their peers to get married, showing that these couples are taking this important decision and Sacrament seriously.
The average length of engagement for couples who experienced our online program is 15 months.
On average, our couples began the course 106 days before getting married.
From there, the spent an average of 21 days navigating through the course:
- 69% of them in the same location
- 11% of them separated by distance
- 19% of them – a combination of both
This is interesting, considering our program exceeds the 8-hour minimum and required topics as prescribed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Furthermore, based on the knowledge we have gathered from the thousands of Catholic couples who enjoyed our marriage preparation experience, the average time spent from start to finish was 21 days. This infers that our couples desire a more in-depth, immersive, and intentional marriage preparation experience.
Most couples are experiencing our program together in the same location, allowing them to pause the videos and have conversations as they are working through their marriage preparation. Couples regularly state that the “pause and discuss” feature has the most valuable benefit of allowing them to dive deeper on a given topic, and opens up discussions that would not normally take place in an alternative marriage preparation program, that is merely “meeting the requirement”.
We asked our couples, “What was the primary reason for choosing our program?”:
- 69% indicated that it was the convenience of the online experience due to their challenging schedules
- 16% indicated that they live far apart from each other
- 7% indicated that we were the only available program that met their needs
- 5% did not indicate any particular reason
- 3% indicated that they enjoyed the privacy of having these discussions together, without an audience
This is interesting because more than half of the couples who chose our online course for marriage preparation did so due to their schedules making it difficult to attend a gathered event.
We also asked our couples, “How did you find us?”:
- 61% were referred by Marriage Ministry Leaders, like you, either at their parish or diocese!
- 31% found us by searching for “Online Pre Cana”
- 8% had a friend refer them
By a landslide, couples found out about our course from you, more than any other avenue! We appreciate your continued support and friendship!
For more information about couples in your region, and about how our programs are a powerful tool in your ministry’s toolbox, in addition to your existing traditional marriage preparation options, we would love to connect with you, and send you an informational packet in the mail!
