About Us

Us-2Hello! We are William & Dequiana Jackson, the founders of Marriage First Ministries. Our mission is to help couples create strong, healthy marriages that glorify God.  We provide workshops, private counseling, retreats and products to help couples keep marriage as their first ministry.

We’ve been married since September 3, 2011, but our story starts much earlier. Our first encounter was at a bowling alley when we were 12 and 14. William was the impressive kid who kept winning stuffed animals at the crane machine, and Dequiana was the only girl he chose to give one of the animals to. It would’ve been the start of a budding relationship…if we remembered to exchange phone numbers. :-( After that night, we didn’t see each other again until Dequiana’s high school dance three years later. Funny enough, William’s date ran off with Dequiana’s date, so we spent the night catching up…and exchanging numbers this time. :-) We dated for about a year and then parted ways, only to reconnect 16 years later on Valentine’s Day 2011. Not wanting to miss our chance a third time, we dated, got engaged, and got married within the year.

We’ll celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary on September 3, 2025, and look forward to many more happy years!

Disney Cruise 2016 DQ and William Photo

William and Dequiana, April 2016

More About William: William’s Music

More About Dequiana: Inspired Marketing, Inc.

Why We Can Help You:

We haven’t just counseled couples. We’ve lived through some of the same issues you have. Through God’s grace, we’ve been brought through our storms and want to equip you with the same tools that helped us. Here are some of the issues we’ve been able to overcome during dating and the first few years of marriage:

  • Operating as a blended family
  • Financial difficulties
  • Meddling in-laws
  • Infidelity, boundaries, and trust
  • Illness – William was on dialysis since 1995, but received a new kidney on June 10, 2015 😀
  • Not having marriage role models of our own age
  • Working together to build a business
  • Intimacy
  • How to give 100% whether your spouse is or not

Ready to get started? Contact us to schedule a coaching session or group workshop today.


Our marital advice has been featured in Brides Magazine’s article, “Ace Your First Year of Marriage.” We’ve also been privileged to lead group coaching workshops and plan marriage retreats for several groups.

brides-magazine