Birmingham Catholic Engaged Encounter

My fiancé and I are an interfaith couple (I’m Catholic, he’s Assembly of God). We were required to go since we want a Catholic blessing for our marriage (really, it was to appease my mom).
To be honest, we were ready to fight this whole experience. I mean, seriously, I went in with the worst attitude and was fully prepared to just go through the bare minimum emotions to get our certificate of completion. It actually turned out to be way more beneficial than I could ever expect. Here’s the breakdown of our experience:
Food: What we were served Saturday was not the same quality of what we were served Sunday. It was night and day. Saturday’s eggs looked like Egg Beaters. Sunday’s were delicious. Saturday’s bread didn’t have much flavor. Sunday morning’s bread was something special you’d have like Christmas morning. Saturday was «pepperoni spaghetti.» Sunday was fried chicken. You get the picture. To be fair, the retreat center was brand spanking new.
Room situations: You do not share a room with your fiancé (surprise to me at first, but then I’m like «duh, these are Catholics we’re talking about.») I was put in a room with 2 other girls who were perfectly normal people and were really nice. One of my roommates actually had a fiancé who was my fiancé’s roommate so we ended up eating all our meals together. We made two new friends, so that was a bonus :)
Time: Be prepared to be devoted to this retreat. You get some breaks, but they’re short. You will get up early and stay up late.
Cost: $ 275-​$ 290 depending on if you’re getting married in the state or not (we’re not). I hear there are scholarships available if the price is too high.
Presentations: There were two presenting couples. One had been married for 30 years+. The other 10 years+. Both with lots of kids. They were very nice and welcoming. Some of the topics were more interesting than others (NFP-​Natural Family Planning– turned out to be one of the most interesting for us). Every topic, of course, went back to religion and God, but they were very relevant topics, including raising a family to handling finances.
Workbooks: Yes, you are given workbooks. What happens is the couples have a presentation on, say, finances. They talk about their own experience as a married couple. Then they ask the couple’s to be in separate rooms and write out answers to questions in the book. This seems really tedious, and, I’m not going to lie it is intense. But my fiancé and I learned a lot about each other.
Overall, my fiancé and I were very happy with our experience. We were able to take a break from wedding planning (which was very much needed) and just focus on us as we prepare to get married. My best piece of advice is to have a positive attitude and take the retreat seriously. That mindset definitely helped us.