First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage Quiz

Answer: Common-law marriage

More than mere cohabitation is required to make a common-law marriage valid. Usually the couple must hold themselves out to the community as husband and wife, freely consent to the marriage, live together for a certain period of time, and meet all the requirements that are needed for a marriage to be otherwise valid. Very few European countries recognize common-law marriages, but in 2014 they were still legal in nine states in the United States, and most Canadian provinces.

Answer: To speed up the wedding date

The Church, not the civil authorities, were in charge of marriages in medieval times. When a couple wanted to get married, it was required that the impending marriage be announced from the pulpit of the parish church for three successive Sundays before the marriage took place. This practice was called "reading the banns." Its purpose was to allow anyone who objected to the marriage to make his or her reasons known.

If the couple wanted to skip this three week waiting period, they could apply for a license from the local bishop or archbishop for a license that would allow them to marry immediately. Those applying for a license had to pay a fee, swear that there were no legal impediments to the marriage, and post a bond that would be forfeited if the marriage later turned out to be invalid. For example, William Shakespeare applied for a license to marry Anne Hathaway on November 27, 1582, and a bond of forty pounds was posted as surety by two of his friends. There was good reason for him doing so; Anne was already pregnant, and no marriages were allowed between Advent Sunday (December 2) and mid-January. Many of these early licenses were probably issued to couples in similar circumstances.

Eventually, civil authorities assumed control over marriages, and most states made a marriage license a requirement for a valid marriage. When a couple applies for a marriage license, they are basically swearing that they are free to enter into a marriage and meet all the legal requirements to be married in the jurisdiction where they make the application. They will also, of course, be required to pay a fee.

Answer: Dowry

A woman's dowry traditionally had a major role to play in her attractiveness as a potential mate, at least where the upper and middle classes were concerned. A dowry could be in the form of cash, land, cattle, or any other valuable commodity. A dowry was usually paid to the groom or the groom's father by the bride's father. A "dowry" should not be confused with "dower." A bride's dower was wealth over which she maintained control, which was usually given to her by her husband. Our word "dowager", meaning a widow, comes from dower, not dowry.

Some cultures, particularly those where women were in short supply, had the opposite custom. A prospective groom would have to purchase his mate from her family, by paying what was called a "bride price." This practice is becoming common in modern day China, where men outnumber women to a significant degree.

Answer: Civil marriages

For many centuries, marriage was governed by canon law, or church law. Eventually, however, laws were changed to allow couples to be married by government officials, rather than by the clergy. Today, many European countries actually require couples who want a religious wedding to undergo a civil ceremony first! In the United States, civil ceremonies are quite common, and the various states and municipalities have differing regulations as to who may perform the ceremony - usually a judge or Justice of the Peace, although some allow a mayor, a designated clerk, or other official to officiate. No state currently requires a civil ceremony to take place prior to, or in lieu of, a religious ceremony.

Answer: Queen Victoria

Until the mid-19th century, women simply wore the best dress they owned (or could afford to have made) to their wedding. Color wasn't an important consideration; some women were even married wearing black dresses. Then, in 1840, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom wore a white dress for her wedding to Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha. Victoria may have been ugly, not very bright, and perhaps a touch insane, but she was the Queen, so women everywhere began following her example, and the tradition continues to this day.

By the way, white was not chosen to represent purity or chastity. Victoria chose white because she had some expensive lace she wanted to show off. In addition, in the days before dry cleaners, white clothes were very difficult to keep clean, so white clothes were a sign of wealth and conspicuous consumption. The traditional color for chastity was blue, the color the Virgin Mary wears in her portraits.

Answer: Polygamy

Monogamy, which is the norm in most, if not all, western cultures, means that a person has only one spouse. Like many of our marriage customs, the idea of monogamy seems to have been handed down to us by the Romans. Under Roman law, a man was allowed only to have one wife at a time. Having more than one spouse is called polygamy. More specifically, if a man has more than one wife, it is called polygyny; much rarer, but not unknown, is a situation where a wife has more than one husband, a practice called polyandry.

The most famous example of polygamy in the United States is probably the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, popularly known as the Mormon Church. In the early days of the church, its male members would sometimes have dozens of wives. This resulted in numerous legal problems, and prevented Utah, where most Mormons lived, from becoming a state. On September 23, 1890, the Mormon leader Wilford Woodruff (who had nine wives himself) received a vision from Jesus Christ which told him that the Church should abandon the policy of plural marriage. Utah became a state in 1896, and Mormons no longer practice polygamy, except for a few splinter groups.

Answer: Morganatic marriage

The term "morganatic marriage" comes from the German word for morning, and refers to the "morning gift" that a groom would traditionally bestow upon his bride. It is sometimes called a "left-handed marriage," because the groom would hold his wife's hand with his left hand instead of his right. Such marriages were perfectly legal and binding, but the wife and her children forfeited any right to her husband's titles, and any children born of the marriage would have no inheritance rights. If the bride was a commoner, she would usually be given a courtesy title.

Great Britain has no tradition of morganatic marriages, otherwise Kate Middleton would have been out of luck when she married Prince William. But such marriages were previously quite common in continental Europe. Perhaps the most famous example is the marriage between Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination sparked World War I, and Sophie Chotek. Although the Choteks had been members of the Austrian nobility since the 14th century, and Sophie was the daughter of a count, she was not deemed aristocratic enough to become Empress of Austria. When Sophie and the Archduke were finally allowed to marry in 1900, Franz Ferdinand was forced to sign a document stating that Sophie would never be given the title of Archduchess or Empress, and that their children would be barred from the line of succession. She was given the title of "Duchess of Hohenberg" instead.

The Austrian royal family never did fully accept poor Sophie. After she and her husband were assassinated in 1914, her husband's wish that they be buried together was honored, but they were denied burial in the Imperial Crypt.

Answer: Rice

The custom of throwing rice at weddings can be traced back to Roman times, but there really isn't much information about how the practice caught on in Britain and the United States. Rice is not widely grown in these countries, and in medieval times it was more common to shower a newlywed couple with wheat or nuts. One theory is that rice, being white, fit in with the idea of a "white wedding" better than other grains. Or it may have been introduced by French or Italian immigrants.

At any rate, the practice seems to be dying out, and is even banned in some areas, because of the absurd idea that birds can die, or even explode, from eating the rice.

This is absolutely not true. The real reason is probably that birds who swoop down to eat the rice create quite a mess.

Answer: Shotgun wedding

The image conjured up by the term "shotgun wedding" is that of an unwilling bridegroom being forced into an impromptu ceremony while the bride's father holds him at gunpoint. While shotgun weddings, or the equivalent, have undoubtedly been common since time immemorial, the term did not appear in print until 1921.

The term "shotgun wedding" is often used today to describe any wedding where the bride is pregnant, even if both partners are willing participants in the ceremony.

Answer: Lavender marriage

The color lavender has been associated with gay men since the Victorian era - perhaps because it's a mixture of the traditional blue for boys and pink for girls. Since homosexuals could be ostracized in society, many gay men (and a few women) would get married in order to conceal their true sexual orientation. Such marriages were particularly common in the early days of Hollywood.

Unfortunately, the other partner was not always aware of his or her partner's inclinations until after the nuptials had been consecrated, and many brides, in particular, were often disappointed with their husbands' lack of ardor in the bedroom. Even in today's more tolerant times, such marriages are not unknown.