Engaged? Newly Married? Married a while?
If you've been wondering where to find faithfully Catholic formation for the bedroom, this is it.
The Wedding Night & Beyond
A Catholic Bride's Guide to Sex and Intimacy
Lay the foundation for a lifetime of mutually fulfilling, and delightful lovemaking with your husband.
Making love is holy and should be a delightful part of your marriage
The formation you need to get there has been almost impossible to find. Until now.
Maybe you're waiting for marriage, and you're carrying that gift carefully toward your wedding day.
Maybe the road has been less straight, and you've brought everything to Confession and you're walking in with a clean heart and a tender hope.
Wherever you are starting from, there are things you need to know about your body, his body, and how to cultivate a beautiful love life in marriage that honors how you were designed.
This is the formation I wish I had been given before I walked down the aisle. It is the formation hundreds of Catholic wives have told me would have saved them so much frustration.
I definitely went into marriage completely uninformed about how pleasure happens. I knew all about charting my cycles, some basic mechanics about sex, but really nothing about how my body works in the sense of achieving pleasure."
This was made for you.
You deserve detailed, faithful, and practical guidance about sex
for Catholic women, from a woman's perspective.
Whether you are:
Nervous or quietly scared about your wedding night,
Ashamed that you had sex before marriage, and longing for a fresh start,
Excited to give yourself fully to the man you've waited for,
Confused or disappointed that lovemaking has not felt like what you had hoped for
...you are exactly the woman I made this for.
A truly delightful sex life with your husband is possible. Your body, your heart, your spirit, your communication, your expectations, and yes, you knowledge of the practical how to's of lovemaking — all of it matters, and it can be learned.
The first lessons in understanding my own anatomy and arousal sequence created the space for my husband and I to have much more fruitful conversations about lovemaking, which has been a wonderful blessing....just the added depth and intimacy that has come about as a result of making a few minor adjustments in our mindsets and approach to lovemaking."
I am Sarah Bartel
Ph.D. in Catholic Moral Theology, The Catholic University of America
Mother of five. Wife of more than 25 years.
Also, the friend and mentor who is going to tell you things no one else will.
I've been working in marriage and engaged ministry for over 15 years, and have been helping Catholic wives (and soon-to-be-wives) with faithful, practical guidance and formation for sex for over five years.
You:
A married or engaged Catholic woman in any season of life willing to learn and willing to try. Bring every honest question — especially the ones you don't know who else to ask.
Me:
I'll bring you the formation I wish I had been given before my own wedding. I have walked hundreds of Catholic wives through this material, and I cannot wait to walk with you through it too.
Together, we'll invite the Holy Spirit to work through it all so you can "glorify God in your bodies!"
What will this class cover?
I have gathered the formation that hundreds of Catholic wives have told me they wish they had been given before they got married, or in their early years.
These are the most important things that you need to know as a woman.
In the class, you will learn:
How women's arousal actually works, and why it usually takes 30+ minutes (most advice is written from the male perspective!)
Why waiting a day or two after the wedding to consummate could be a good idea, and how to plan for it.
Your anatomy, and his, in plain, honest, faithfully Catholic language
A step-by-step guide for the four movements of lovemaking: initiation, foreplay, intercourse, and afterglow
How to get over the awkwardness and talk with your fiancé or your husband about sex
The truth about marital debt, obligation sex, and how to lovingly initiate or lovingly decline
How libido shifts through engagement, the early years, pregnancy, and motherhood, and what to do about it
My famous What's Allowed List, answering more than 20 of the most common moral questions I get about sex in marriage.
The Wedding Night & Beyond
A Catholic Bride's Guide to Sex and Intimacy
The course includes:
On-Demand Video Lessons
Three on-demand video lessons, each about 60 minutes long, that you can watch at your own pace, together with your beloved or on your own.
Lesson 1 — What To Do Before "I Do": the formation no one gave you about your body, his body, and how desire actually works between a husband and wife.
Lesson 2 — Doing It For The First Time: how to plan and walk through your wedding night and the early days of marriage, including the foreplay, the first time, and how to talk about it together.
Lesson 3 — Creating a Thriving Sex Life: how to keep lovemaking blessed and delightful for the long haul — initiation, communication, declining lovingly, and the truth about libido through every season of marriage.
Downloads and guides
Deeply practical downloads accompany every lesson, including:
The What's Allowed List — clear, faithfully Catholic answers to more than twenty of the most common moral questions wives ask me about sex.
The Honeymoon First-Time Tips Checklist — everything you'll want to think about before the wedding night, in one place.
Reflection prompts, conversation starters, and curated additional resources for every lesson.
lifetime access
Lifetime access to the full course and every bonus below — yours to revisit through every season of your marriage.
"There wasn't anything wrong with me — preconceived notions and unreal expectations were the real block. Now there's an excitement, almost like we're newlyweds who got married as virgins. Regained innocence."
Bonuses!
BONUS 1:
Pelvic Floor Health Videos
Two videos from guest expert Veronica Stephens that give you the knowledge and the practical exercises to keep your pelvic floor healthy through engagement, the wedding night, and the years (and babies) ahead.
BONUS 2:
How to have sex with your husband
A detailed, step-by-step example, drawn from my signature course My Delight, walking you through what lovemaking can actually look like from initiation, through foreplay, to climax, to afterglow. The kind of concrete picture no one has ever drawn for you.
BONUS 3:
Discount on My Delight
If you ever want to go deeper, every dollar you spend today comes with you. The full purchase price of Wedding Night & Beyond applies to your future enrollment in My Delight, my comprehensive deep-dive course with weekly live coaching calls, regular guest experts, and optional individual coaching with me. Try this and you can upgrade later.
The Wedding Night & Beyond
A Catholic Bride's Guide to Sex and Intimacy
Here's everything you get:
3 on-demand 60-minute video lessons
The What's Allowed List (20+ moral questions, answered)
The Honeymoon First-Time Tips Checklist
Reflection prompts, conversation starters, and curated further resources
Lifetime access
BONUS: Pelvic Floor Health video series (with Veronica Stephens)
BONUS: How to Make Love with Your Husband — the step-by-step example
BONUS: credit your purchase price toward your future enrollment in My Delight
Yours for just: $399
Or 3 monthly payments of $133
Let me answer your questions...
"Won't we just figure it out?"
I thought this too. Most of the books are written from the male perspective, or they stop at what is allowed without ever telling you how it actually works for a woman's body. The wives I have walked with — even the well-read ones, even the ones with strong marriages — have told me again and again, I wish I had known this years ago. You will not just figure this part out on your own. Almost no one does.
"Is this fully in line with Catholic teaching?"
Is it ever! My doctorate is in moral theology from The Catholic University of America, with a specialization in marriage and family. It's training that I use to ensure everything in the course falls well within the Catholic tradition.
"Can I really let myself learn this if I grew up in a home with a negative view of sex? What if it's uncomfortable?"
YES. You can. In fact, you owe it to yourself (and to your beloved) to learn this. So many of us were given strong messages as girls and young women about what to avoid and no formation at all about lovemaking inside of marriage. Theology of the Body and church teachings are beautiful and good and true, but they are also abstract.
Coming to terms with the physical reality of sex, and embracing it as good, can be difficult for some women. Learning this is part of receiving the gift that God has waiting for you.
The freedom I've received — that this is God's design, and He wants this. That mindset that it's not shameful or dirty to engage in this."
More questions. More answers.
Who is this course for ?
This is for the Catholic woman about to be married, who needs to understand how sex actually works inside of marriage.
It is also for the Catholic newlywed who is in the middle of trying to figure it out, because no one ever told her much beyond how the parts fit together.
And it is also for the wife who is past her newlywed years who suspects she was never given the formation she needed, and who is ready to receive it now.
When will I get access to the course ?
You will get instant access to the course as soon as you enroll!
You'll have lifetime access, on-demand, to watch at your own pace.
Can I purchase this course as a gift ?
Absolutely. Someone is very blessed to have you in her life. ❤️
This is a beautiful gift for your daughter, granddaughter, niece, goddaughter, or any young engaged or recently-married woman in your life.
To purchase as a gift, simply check out as normal using your own information. After your purchase is complete, reply to the welcome email and let me know you would like to gift it to someone else. I'll work with you directly to get it to the right person — I'll only need her name and email.
What if I have more questions ?
Reply to any email you have received from me. I read every reply, and I will do my best to answer.
I would be honored to walk with you.
Finding faithful Catholic formation about sex is hard. Finding it from a woman, in a woman's voice, written for the way a woman's body and heart actually work, is harder still.
This is the formation I wish I had been given. Let me give it to you.
I'm here to help.
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