Step into the lives of three couples and discover why marriage preparation is so important.

Celia and Jared

Celia listens to her boyfriend Jared's calm voice as he reads a prayer about love and families during their weekly prayer service. She smiles and senses that warm, bubbly feeling inside again. For the fifth time today, she wonders if Jared might be the person she could spend her life with. Before the service, she watched him laugh and play with a small girl, and she thought he'd make a great father. Jared finishes the prayer and pulls Celia from her thoughts with a warm smile and a twinkle in his eye. It doesn't take them long to decide what they have is special, and they are married within four months.

After they write their thank you cards, put the gifts in special places in their apartment, and settle into married life, Celia and Jared's marriage fills with arguments and tears. He discovers she buys a new wardrobe every three months, while he likes to save money for vacations. She now knows he wants four children and she only wants two. She wants to pray together every morning, and he is happy with only once or twice a week. Foreplay and sex are okay when they're not fighting, but most of the time stress sabotages their romance.

Kerra and Tristan

Kerra, 38, a, non-profit executive director, has been through her share of interesting marriages. First there was Jerry, who turned out to think marriage was only about having regular sex. Then there was Peter, who thought a women's job was entirely in the kitchen. Even after these experiences, she still wants to find that special guy and remarry. She's convinced she just hasn't made the right spiritual connection with someone. She finds a new-age matchmaking site on the Internet, where she meets Tristan, 53, who has been married twice before too. He reads all the same kind of books she does, and they seem to understand each other's souls. He says he owns his own construction company and makes almost a six-figure salary.

Through exchanging emails and phone calls for a few months, Kerra gets to know Tristan from a distance and likes him a lot. He moves to be nearer to her, and, after dating for three months, they marry in a small ceremony. She has some concerns, but doesn't express them; after all, she and Tristan are madly in love, and he moved across the country to be near her. Kerra goes forward, only really getting to know him, and all his problems, after the wedding. She discovers, contrary to what he'd told her, he had been working for his father for $26,000 per year and he's totally unmotivated to find work where they now live. After nine months of arguing and yelling, they separate. She wishes she'd had some tools to help her get to know him better before they got married.

Brian and Tierra

Brian, 30, fears commitment, but now he thinks he's found the "the one." He is an engineer, and his fiancée Tierra, 29, works as a hostess at a classy restaurant. Brian loves that Tierra comes from a big family, after he grew up lonely without brothers or sisters. After waiting for years for a serious relationship, he feels there's no need to prolong his engagement; however, he misses many warning signs. He ignores the arguments they keep having, his friends' and parents' concerns, the romanticized stories that he tells the minister about everything being great, and his excitement about being part of Tierra's family rather than mainly about being a husband. He is "in love" and certain that everything will work out "just fine."

The wedding is every couple's dream-well planned, beautiful, and expensive. Three months later, Brian and Tierra separate and head for divorce. They hadn't discussed a number of important issues-money, sex, household arrangements, worship services, family relationships, and work-much less, agreed on them before marriage.