Date Weekend at the Marriage Retreat

 

Yesterday I told you about our visit from our friends who always come to stay with us on their way to a marriage retreat. Last fall, then they made their “reservation” at our house, they asked if we would be interested in coming with them to the retreat this year. It’s been several years since we’ve attended a marriage conference of any kind, so we said yes!

                The conference they attend is called Marriage for Life, and it takes place in Amish country (Holmes County) Ohio. Fun fact: the conference was founded by one of my IWU classmates. The conference team is intent upon making a marriage conference doable and affordable for couples, so they offer identical versions of this conference on multiple weekends, and they have many sponsors who keep the cost per couple as low as possible. The whole conference lasts just under 24 hours, so that helps those who need to find childcare.

                The event takes place at the Amish Country Theater in Berlin, Ohio, which is attached to the Encore Hotel. We stayed at the Encore, and I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow, but they have so many attending this event now that they also have guests staying at a handful of other nearby hotels!

                This year’s speaker was Ted Lowe, and while we weren’t familiar with him before this weekend, we really enjoyed his presentation. Ryan and I have historically struggled with marriage conference material, because many seem to target marriages in crisis, and this one made space for those, but also had room for couples who enjoy marriage and just want to enjoy it even more – like us! Ted had a great sense of humor, a simple and easy-to-remember presentation, and great practical examples.

                With all that background information established, let me give you a peek at our weekend!

                We started our time away by taking Lexi to her puppy hotel for the weekend. She loves her friends there and was super excited to see them. We also stopped on our way for some Shaka Shack coffee, which seems to be our new tradition for heading out on a trip!

                On our way to Ohio, I (possibly) took a nap, I read two chapters from a book to Ryan, we played a game, and we brainstormed our next vacation destination. It was a busy road trip!

                We had beautiful traveling weather and arrived at the hotel late in the afternoon. We found our hotel room ready for us, complete with fancy towels and gifted chocolate covered strawberries. (This local company donates these for every single couple attending any of the conferences! I think they said this year they donated 1800 chocolate covered strawberries.)

                The first session took place on Friday night, and we sat with our friends. (It’s always fun to have friends to show you the ropes when you’re going for the first time!) I’m not sure why I look like I have a sunburn in this picture. Lighting, I guess!)

                Ted did a great job speaking, and I took many notes.

                And then…

                …we stayed for The Newlywed Game.

                We’ve heard a lot about this game from Frog and Jenna’s stories over the years. Two years in a row, they were contestants, actually! Beau, my friend from college who co-founded this conference, was the emcee, and he did a great job with it.

                Everyone in the room had an index card, and he asked some questions of the husbands, and then more of the wives. We answered each other’s questions and then tallied the number we got right. Beau collected the cards according to how many the couples answered correctly, and then he drew three cards to choose couples for the stage-version of the show.

                I knew as soon as he pulled a card and said, “Oh nooooooo! First timers!” that our names were on that card.

                And that is how we landed on a stage with two couples who had been married less than a year.

                The ladies left the stage first while the guys gave answers to questions, and then we came back out to try to match their answers. How many out of three did I get right, you might ask? If you guessed ZERO, you’d be right. Apparently I do not know myself at all. And then the guys left, we answered questions and they came back to match us. Ryan did better than I did, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. I think I’ll save those questions for another day and we’ll have some quiz fun.

                But here are some of our priceless face moments from the game.

                In the end, thanks ONLY to Ryan, we came in second and won a nice gift card!

                Jenna’s first question when I got back to my seat? “Are we still friends?” 😉

                We attended two sessions on Saturday morning, and Ryan demonstrated sacrificial love by donating a shirt from his suitcase for me to wear that day. I was so consumed with packing lighter than I’d ever packed in my entire life that I only brought a button-down flannel to wear with my jeans, and the theater felt (to me) like the surface of the sun. Ryan had brought a couple of extra t-shirts, so he let me wear one, and it made the Saturday sessions much more enjoyable.

                After the last session ended, we were able to talk to the speaker for a few minutes – and then it was time to come home! We’ve not stopped talking about all we learned over the weekend!

                If you’re in a drivable distance from Marriage for Life (Holmes County or Cleveland), we highly recommend checking it out in 2026. Worth it!