Marriage Laws by State and Marriage Type

I started my search on this subject when a friend of mine told me that in Colorado, back when her parents married, a man could actually marry at a younger age than a woman and that the legal age back then was 19. It made me wonder if perhaps that legal age had changed over the years since her parents married, and that's when I discovered the legal age to get married is not the same in every state.

Colorado has since lifted the 19-age limit restriction on getting married, and now it is 18 for couples to marry in Colorado. However, Nebraska still requires a couple to both be at least 19 years old to marry. All other states require a couple be at least 18 to marry without parental consent or court order. What's interesting is, Colorado recently had a loophole in a common law marriage requirement that allowed girls as young as 12 to be considered married!

This started me thinking about other unusual marriage laws and requirements, so I did a little digging, and here is what I learned.

COVENANT MARRIAGE:

A covenant marriage is a marriage where both parties agree to enter into a covenant marriage, both parties attend premarital counseling, and if divorce is an option, both parties are required to attend marriage counseling prior to divorce being granted. Divorce also has a longer waiting period in a covenant marriage. Currently, only three states allow covenant marriages: Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana.

SECRET MARRIAGES:

In some states, you can legally marry in secret, with no public recording of the marriage in the licensing bureau for the area. I was very surprised to learn that some states allow secret marriages, but later learned it is not unusual for celebrities or others in the public eye to enter into secret marriages in states that allow them so the media doesn't discover the marriage license before the couple is ready to announce the marriage publicly.

MARRIAGE BY PROXY:

California, Colorado, Texas and Montana all allow marriage by proxy. A marriage by proxy is allowed when one party to the marriage is not able to be present, due to health, work, active military duty, etc, but the couple need to marry by a certain date. A proxy allows someone else that both parties to the marriage agree upon to stand in for the missing person.

COMMON LAW MARRIAGE:

The following states currently recognize some form of common law marriage by cohabitation and affidavit of agreement to be married: Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington, D.C.

Georgia, Idaho and Ohio recognize some common law marriages that occurred before a certain date. New Hampshire recognizes common law marriages only for the purposes of settling an estate when a person dies and was married by common law.

It's important to know the cohabitation laws in your state if you live in one of the listed states, because it is possible, though unlikely, to accidentally end up married to someone you live with by common law.

Know Your Marriage Laws:

Marriage laws are not federal and are left to the state and sometimes even county officials to determine the legalities and requirements for couples marrying. Some states allow first cousins to marry and some don't, while others allow it only if they are over 65 or can show proof they can't have children. Some states have waiting periods, some require physicals or blood tests.

Do you know the marriage laws in your state?

Sources:

http://marriage.about.com/cs/teenmarriage/a/teenus.htm

http://marriage.about.com/library/howto/htcommonlaw.htm