Getting married is supposed to be one of the happiest days in your life. You are committing yourself to the man or woman that you love more than anyone, and you are ready to spend your rest of your lives together.
However, a lot of the times there is a lot of stress involved with planning a wedding. While the day itself can be a lot of work, the commitment is something that is honored by many people. Usually you don't have to concern yourself with learning obscure laws before you do it, but apparently we all should have.
Because marriage has been around for so long, there are is a lot of variance in the laws in place for those couples who either wish to get married or those who have been married for a while.
Laws are added and altered over the years, but sometimes those old laws are left on the books even when they aren't enforced anymore.
There happen to be quite a few bizarre laws regarding marriage. Here's 10 of the strangest ones that you may not have known were still in effect!
1. You've got to kill some birds before you can get married.
In a small town called Truro near Cape Cod, a man is legally not allowed to get married before he goes hunting, specifically for birds.
"Every single man in the township shall kill six blackbirds or three crows, and shall not be married till they comply with this requisition," the law written in 1711 reads.
While I'm going to assume that this is no longer enforced, it's a strange tradition to keep on the books after all of these years.
2. Not getting along with your mother-in-law is grounds for divorce.
While it's certainly not unheard of to have some animosity between the partner and their mother-in-law, it seems like Wichita, Kansas takes that relationship a lot more seriously.
If you don't get along with your mother-in-law, your partner can use that as a legally binding cause for divorce. I mean, I guess it's kind of the same thing as irreconcilable differences, but this one is just the difference on the people you like.
3. Married couples can't sleep nude together.
If you want to go on a vacation to Salem, Massachusetts with your husband or wife, be careful, because you're not allowed to fall asleep in the nude if you're in a rented room.
So any hotels you stay in or bed and breakfasts you visit have the legal authority to force you into wearing some pajamas.
4. Psychics are not allowed to perform your wedding.
You'd think a town like New Orleans would be a little bit more open minded when it comes to the mysterious act of fortune tellers and palm readers, but while they may enjoy hearing about their mystic visions, they don't want them to perform weddings.
That's right, in New Orleans, it's illegal for anyone involved in any kind of mystic or psychic activity to perform weddings.
5. No Kissing in public on Sundays.
While PDA is a big no-no for some, others enjoy showing off how much they love their partner. However, in Hartford, Connecticut, you could get in trouble if you dare to kiss in a public on Sunday.
So keep your smooches to your house otherwise you may be spending your romantic day in jail.
6. Three strikes and you're out, no remarrying.
If you have an on-and-off relationship, there comes a point when you should walk away. While it's common sense, the courts in Kentucky have made it law.
You are not allowed to remarry the same man four times. You can remarry him three times, no problem, but if you get divorced after the third time that's it. No more re-dos.
But feel free to marry someone else, there's no restrictions on the number of times you can be married to different people.
7. Get married whenever you want, as long as your parents say it's okay.
This law has been amended a bit, but there was a brief period of time extremely recently where Arkansas made it totally legal for anyone to get married no matter how young they were as long as their parents gave their okay. When I say recent I mean really recent, as in 2007-2008.
They made the law with the intention of allowing pregnant teens to wed, but by not adding a minimum age they technically made it legal for babies to get married if their parents agreed.
They quickly fixed it, setting the minimum ages to 17 for boys and 16 for girls, but they still require their parents permission.
8. You can get married without actually attending your wedding.
If you live in California, Colorado, Texas, or Montana, you can technically get married without actually being at your ceremony as long as you have someone there to act as your "proxy."
This law was put in place for those in the military, to allow for service men and women to marry while they are deployed.
In Montana they actually allow the couple to use two different people acting as a proxy, meaning neither of the couple are actually there.
Could you imagine trying to explain that years later when your grandchildren ask what your wedding was like and you have to answer, "No clue, I wasn't there."
9. You can get your marriage annulled if it was a prank.
You know, that hilarious "let's get married" prank! So funny! (Does anyone actually do this?)
Anyways, as rare as it is, Delaware allows people seeking an annulment to claim that it is invalid because it was "a jest or dare."
10. A married woman needs her husband's permission to get dentures.
If a married woman in Vermont wants to get herself some dentures, technically the law claims that her husband has to sign off on her wearing the false teeth.
HT- Ranker / Woman's Day / Reader's Digest
