sandersstudies:charleyparkhurst:datasoong47:thereallieutenantcommanderdata:esoanem:woefully-undercaf
sandersstudies:charleyparkhurst:datasoong47:thereallieutenantcommanderdata:esoanem:woefully-undercaffeinated:woefully-undercaffeinated:itsalwaysunnyontvv:gorps:mapsontheweb:How many of spouses must be present at wedding for marriage to be valid.@ mutuals we have all just gotten legally married in montanaNo, but here’s the funniest bit about it: Montana has a thing called double marriage by proxy. You see, it still requires some kind of ceremony for a couple to be married, but you can have people standing in for both couples, allowing it to essentially become marriage by phone. So there are two people in Helena whose job it is to get married, over and over again, standing in for other people and allowing their marriages to become legal. *psst* the information in this post would be a very good foundation for a fic on AO3It’s true, although it’s apparently in a town called Kalispell rather than in the capital HelenaA double proxy marriage is a marriage conducted by authority of the State of Montana which allows the parties to become married without either one being present before the civil judge who performs the marriage. One party in a double-proxy marriage must be either a Montana resident or a member of the armed forces on active duty. These marriages are recognized in every state but Iowa. The marriages can be arranged through a web site MarriageByProxy.com which charges about $500 plus about $400 in costs for the court, the proxies who stand in, and the license fees.…Kalispell morphed into a wedding chapel for absentees five years ago [this article is from 2016, so that would be 2011], when a soldier from Montana, serving in Iraq, wanted to marry his pregnant Italian girlfriend. The soldier’s family asked a lawyer named Dean Knapton to research a rumor that Montana allowed double-proxy weddings. The answer, to his surprise, was yes.It seems the law had been on Montana’s books for at least several decades, perhaps to accommodate soldiers during World War II. But its purpose became lost to time, like some once-urgent law banning bowling on the Sabbath — until its resurrection by Mr. Knapton.A more recent article notes that the number of double-proxy marriages has gone way up since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. That article notes that double-proxy marriages have been legal in Montana since the 1860s, so it’s been around for quite a whileCan we just note how funny it is that 48 other states just went with the flow and decided to recognize these marriages as valid and just Iowa specifically decided to be a grouch about it As an Iowa resident that sounds pretty par for the course montana: so they’re married nowevery state except iowa: sounds legit alrightiowa for whatever the fuck reason: no <3 -- source link