Cyber Marriage: How to Get Married on the Internet

With more people meeting via the internet, and friendships developing over long distances, it's not unusual for love to blossom over the internet and then to develop into something more in person. I, myself, have actually met people from the internet and even dated people I met from the internet. The personals dating sites, like Match.com, Plenty Of Fish, and Yahoo! Personals seem to have been around about as long as the internet's been publicly available to the masses.

In the past, I've written articles about cyber relationships, and the consensus on that article's comments was that cyber relationships are indeed cheating if you are involved with someone else in real life. If cyber relationships are cheating, then it makes sense that a cyber relationship can turn into something much more than just a cyber relationship.

So what about cyber marriages? Can someone get married over the internet? If so, would the marriage be legal?

Let's start with the first question: Can a couple get married over the internet?

Cyber Marriage?

Yes! Well, let's back up a bit. Yes, a couple can get married over the internet in the sense that the couple can go to an online chapel chat room where an ordained minister is online and even invite guests into the chat to observe the marriage.

Instead of saying their vows, they would type them. I suppose if there were voice chat with microphones and speakers, they could speak them. When the minister pronounces them husband and wife, the couple can kiss via emoticons. :-)

It's a cute idea. It's especially cute if the couple actually met online and their relationship blossomed online. Unfortunately, for the couple, this type of marriage isn't legally binding and it is not recognized by any of the states or districts in the United States.

Cyber Marriages Aren't Legal (usually)

Fortunately, in my opinion, cyber marriages aren't legally binding marriages. The primary reason they aren't legal is that the internet isn't actually a physical location, and therefore, the internet has no legal jurisdiction for marriages. There's no place to file the marriage license and no legalities for the internet that govern licensing.

However, don't despair if you're looking to marry your sweetheart online in a cyber marriage. There might be a few ways around the legalities for a cyber marriage.

Marriage by Proxy and Cyber Marriages

There are four states in the United States that allow marriage by proxy. This type of marriage is allowed in: California, Colorado, Texas and Montana. Typically, a marriage by proxy allows a couple to marry when one of them is not able to be present in person. A stand in, or a proxy, will sign for and consent on behalf of the absent person.

If a couple wants a legally binding cyber marriage, wheeling a computer or laptop wherever the couple plans to marry might just work. One partner is on the computer and the other person is in front of an official for the marriage. A third person is the proxy for the cyber person. Providing all parties are legally able to marry in one of those four states, a cyber marriage by proxy would be legally binding.

The bride or groom could say, "I do," by typing it in and then send cyber webcam kisses. I'll skip the details on how the marriage would be consummated, but I hear they have cyber... never mind.

Common Law Marriage and Cyber Marriage

Another way a cyber marriage might be legally binding for a marriage ceremony is if the couple meets all the requirements in their state to be common law married. For some states, common law marriage requires an agreement and affidavit from both couples stating they both agree to be married and present themselves as a married couple.

In those instances, having a cyber ceremony for a cyber marriage might be a novel idea for announcing to family and friends that the couple intends to live as a married couple.

Quite frankly, I don't see the advantage to cyber marriage, because if I were pledging to spend the rest of my life with someone, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in healthy, blah blah blah, I'd sort of want to look them in the face when I say, "I do."

However, for the novelty of it, if a couple met online and learned more about each other online, and then met in person and developed a relationship, a cyber marriage ceremony could be quite cute and fun. Couples should know, though, there's no real legal way to get a cyber marriage, so unless the marriage is only to be common law, cyber married couples should seek to make the marriage legal with either a religious or civil ceremony and marriage license and marriage certificate.