We went to marriage counseling also. It was great. There were areas that we hadn't discussed before (surprisingly) and it was really interesting to talk about it, and iron out our differences. We also had to take separate little "character" tests or something, and then talk about them. It was great. I would recommend it to everyone; it forced us to talk about children, finances, future goals, etc. I think our church would've married us without the counseling, but regardless, I'm glad we did it