Wedded bliss.  Some achieve it, some don’t.  We hear a lot about what you should do when you’re planning a wedding – from centerpiece ideas to prenuptial agreements – but we don’t hear much about the weird marriage-related laws that nobody bothered to repeal.  In this case, there is a reason nobody repealed it – people still use it!

Marriage By Proxy

Reportedly, in Montana two people can get hitched even if they don’t show up to the ceremony.  A website that facilitates this even today.  Montana, indeed has a law where both parties can wed without appearing, but Texas, Colorado, and California have a law where only one person has to show up.  In California, the only people who can do this are military personnel who are deployed and their intended.

This law came about in Montana back in the mid-1800′s when there were a bunch of miners moving into the mining towns.  They still wanted to marry their fiances, but it was hard to get around back then, so Montana enacted this law so they could.  I guess, even if a guy wanted to stay in the mines all day while his sweetie was back in Ohio or something he could – the double proxy law meant that neither party had to be present.

Today this law is mainly used for armed forces members who are deployed.  Why they wouldn’t want to wait to do it in person, I don’t know, but since there is a service out there that facilitates this type of thing, I guess it’s more common than you would think.

Watch out, however, if you are from Iowa.  Iowa does not recognize a proxy marriage.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to Video – Have a Happy Marriage (ihowtovideos.com)
• Marriage and the Mob… Mother of the Bride fashion Part 1 (mybigfatengagement.com)
• With this Skype, I thee wed (mysanantonio.com)
• Getting Married in the Military (frommyexperience.com)

Related posts:

1. No Love for STDS
2. Pretending to Abuse Animals in the Presence of a Minor – A No-No in Montana
3. Utah Law – Don’t Go Causing Catastrophes

Believe it or not, it is illegal to pick flowers from trees and plants in the city parks in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Someone needs to tell the people in Iowa that the world is not dealing with a shortage of flowers. Until all the bees die out, I think they’re still a renewable resource.

Sometimes I try to imagine the meetings where weird laws like this are passed or even brought up. Some peon addresses the mayor at the beginning and says “Mayor Overreact, I noticed this morning that when you pick a flower off its stem, it dies shortly after.” “Well holy crap, man! We’ve got to stop everyone from picking flowers!”

That’s probably a little unrealistic, I’ll admit. His name probably would have been Overkill or something like that. Anyway, I believe most laws rise out of necessity to stop recurring problems so was there a flower thief on the loose stealing all the flowers or what? Whatever their reason was, I’m sure it must have been good because otherwise, this law is just ridiculous.

Related posts:

1. Self-Mutilating Prisoners
2. Stop Sleeping!
3. Horses, Laws, and Bears, Oh My!