Marriage formation
Answers from across the site that touch on marriage formation.
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Getting Married: Licenses, Waiting Periods, and Officiants
A valid marriage in the United States is a state-law event with three moving parts: a license issued before the ceremony, a ceremony led by someone the state accepts, and a signed return filed afterward.
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Common-Law Marriage: Where It Still Exists and What Proves It
Only a handful of jurisdictions still let a couple become married without a license, and each of them requires a present agreement to be married plus public conduct that matches it.
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Proxy, Remote, and Destination Weddings: Where They Are Valid
Validity is decided by the law of the place the ceremony happened, so a remote or foreign wedding stands or falls on rules you may never have read, then has to be provable at home.
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Marriage Recognition Across State and National Borders
A marriage that was valid where it was performed is recognized almost everywhere else, and the exceptions that once made that rule fragile have narrowed sharply.
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Void and Voidable Marriages: Bigamy, Age, and Capacity
A void marriage was never valid and no one has to end it; a voidable marriage is fully valid until the right person asks a court to undo it, and many never are.