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Getting Married

For most couples getting married is one of the biggest decisions they will make in their lives. It is something that deserves and needs a lot of thought, a lot of discussion and when it comes to the wedding day, a lot of planning.

Each year thousands of couples get married in Ireland. The majority of these marriages begin with some form of official ceremony with Church ceremonies being the most popular. Despite recession and difficult financial times, couples continue to commit themselves to each other and the majority of them choose Sacramental marriage as their preference.

In 2007 ACCORD Catholic Marriage Care Service engaged the services of Amarach Consulting to undertake a research project entitled ‘Married Life the First Seven Years’. A total of 712 couples were interviewed which represented 100 couples married from each year from year one to seven years.

Though all couples experience difficulties and conflicts at different points in their marriage, the evidence from the report suggests that strong and effective problem solving and coping mechanisms are in place to deal with these issues as they arise.

To summarise the key findings from the study:

  • The vast majority of modern married couples understand marriage to be a lifelong commitment.
  • Marriage is a sufficiently rewarding experience such that 9 out of 10 would recommend it to others.
  • The traditional family arrangement of children being raised by both their natural parents is the one preferred by almost all married couples in the survey.
  • Co-habitation is an increasingly common occurrence before marriage for couples, and is seen as a stage leading to marriage rather than as an alternative to marriage.
  • The incidence of severe marital difficulties in the first 7 years of marriage is relatively rare amongst those couples surveyed.

ACCORD has been involved in preparing couples for marriage and in offering a counselling service for those experiencing difficulties in their marriage for over fifty years. We have a total of 55 locations throughout the island of Ireland (see map for details).

For those of you visiting our website who are planning to get married we offer you our sincere best wishes for the future. We hope that our website will assist you in your planning and that you will visit the site again in the future to avail of information and material which you may find interesting and valuable in support of your marriage.

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