Modern Marital

A modern pre-marital course. No therapist needed.

Built on relationship research and traditional wisdom about what actually makes marriages last. Five modules, a few hours, done together before or after the wedding.

Erik and his wife smiling together outdoors in Richmond

Pre-marital education has been shown to decrease the chance of divorce by over 30%1. But if you're not religious, your only real option has been couples therapy which is expensive and carries a “something's wrong” feeling that's the last thing you want in the lead-up to your wedding.

Couples Therapy

$150 to $200 a session, usually several sessions, scheduled around someone else's calendar.

Modern Marital

$129, once. A few hours, on your own schedule, at your own pace, together.

What's Inside

  • 5 modules covering the conversations that matter most to get your marriage off to a good start
  • Practical exercises, meant to be talked through together, not read alone
  • A continued-learning path for after the “I do”

Why This Exists

Erik and his wife on their wedding day

We built Modern Marital because we got so much out of the pre-marital course we took ourselves. Nine years into a happy marriage, we still talk about the topics and strategies it gave us.

Looking back, we realized most of that value came from the workbook and the discussions it sparked, not necessarily from the specific religious context around it. So we set out to build a refreshed pre-marital and early-marital course that keeps the timeless wisdom but meets modern couples where they actually are.

I built the first version as a wedding present for my brother. He wanted to do some kind of pre-marital preparation after seeing how much it helped us, but he wasn't as religious as we are and didn't want to start his marriage with counseling.

We shared it with five to ten engaged couples, mostly family and friends, before there was ever a public page or a price list. Some got it free as a wedding gift; the rest paid for it. A handful worked all the way through it and told us directly what helped and what didn't, and that feedback shaped the version you're reading about now.

— Erik & Caitlyn

“We're really glad we completed Modern Marital while we were engaged; it ended up being a fun, helpful thing to do leading up to the wedding. We're not religious, so most marriage prep/counseling wasn't readily available to us, and this filled that gap. Even the topics we had deeply discussed before getting engaged were good to revisit, and it was particularly helpful to investigate the areas that hadn't naturally come up yet. It also surprised us how painless it was. No significant time commitment, we went at our own pace, and it actually turned into something we looked forward to discussing on our evening dog walks. We'd tell any engaged couple to do it, religious or not.”

— T+S, Married 2024

Across early outreach to couples who've taken it, 3 of 3 said they'd recommend Modern Marital to another engaged couple, two rated it a perfect 10/10.

In a national survey of married couples, those who'd had premarital education had a 31% lower divorce rate than those who hadn't.1

1 Stanley, Amato, Johnson & Markman, “Premarital Education, Marital Quality, and Marital Stability,” Journal of Family Psychology, 2006. This finding is about premarital education broadly, mostly religious or clergy-led counseling, not Modern Marital specifically, and it's based on survey data, not a controlled study.

Get the course. $129, once.

Immediate access. No account, no subscription.

Questions

Do we have to be religious for this?

No. We are Christian and the course draws on traditional wisdom, but it's built for any couple who wants a real foundation, not a sermon.

We're not religious, so most marriage prep or counseling wasn't readily available to us, and this filled that gap.T+S, Married 2024

How long does this actually take?

About six to eight hours total, spread out however works for you. Mostly conversation, not homework.

It was surprisingly painless. No significant time commitment, we went at our own pace, and it turned into something we looked forward to discussing on our evening dog walks.T+S, Married 2024

Is this therapy?

No, and it's not meant to replace therapy if you need it. This is preparation, not treatment.

Who built this?

Us. A married couple that got a lot of value out of their pre-marital counseling but had friends who were looking for a modern alternative. I built the first version as a wedding present for my brother, then rebuilt it after real couples asked to use it and paid for it before it was ever a public product. It's built on established relationship research, traditional wisdom, and direct feedback from the couples who worked through the early version, not personal opinion alone.

Ready to get started?

Immediate access. No account, no subscription.