A bride without a wedding!!!!

You guys are going to laugh at this..........

So john and I have been going out for 6 years on January 15th...He was my first love, and I was his...We have a wonderful relationship...and basically act like a married couple...We plan on getting married...Our date was November 2005..But money has been so tight lately that we decided it would probably have to wait till 2006.......ok but heres the funny part......

I was always under the misconception that if you live with a person for 7 years you are concidered Common law husband/wife.....John and I have only been living together for 5 years.....
Anyhoo I was just watching a "Who's The Boss"...and Angela and Tony found out that they were married because they went into a common law state and possed as man and wife....I was intrigued so I decided to look it up.....I found out that the whole 7 year thing is a myth!!! I also found out there is only 16 states that recognize common law marriges..Massachusettes NOT being one of them...Then I read that even if you live in a state that doesnt have common law marrige..If you go to a common law state and play off that you are married....i.e. call eachother man and wife..check into hotels under same name...ect..you are infact legally married!!!!!!!!! A marrige that is recognized in a non common law state like massachusetts.
John and I went to Rhode Island a year ago and thought it would be fun to check into a hotel as man and wife..Rhode Island IS a common law state..We are infact leagally married!!!!!!! How funny is that????...If we broke up we would have to get a divorce....Heck were supposed to be doing joint taxes....I am so ammused..If John didnt have the ability to sleep through a bomb I would wake him up right now and tell him...LOL......
So I guess you can all refer to me from now on as Mrs. Bridget Crawford... ...heres a site about it if youre interested

http://www.unmarried.org/common.html

Heres john and I in highschool


Heres a more recent pic of my beautiful "Husband"..lol

wow, im looking the site up now!!

i had to look up common law marriage laws for a problem at work the other day and I know in PA the common law thing ended in 2003 but people who we "married" before that still remain "married." There were some stipulations though, one being that you must speak vows to each other in private, refer to each other as husband & wife, and live your lives as husband and wife (ie filing joint tax returns, having property in both names, etc.) But they outlawed it now because of the legal hassles.. plus marriage is SO easy to do now that they feel there is no reason not to be married legally..

but some other states still have it..

Well, congratulations, Mrs. Crawford! This is really interesting!

Here in Britain you only have to be living together for 6 months before you are recognised as commonlaw man and wife. So technically, I've already been married, without a wedding, although it came pretty darn close that screw-up cost me a small fortune

LOL...i thought you guys might enjoy that

Here in Puerto Rico, you are not considered man and wife until you've gotten a marriage given by either a religious clergyman or a state or federal judge with jurisdiction within Puerto Rico. In fact, Puerto Rican law will go as far as using the word "concubine" to describe a couple who is living as married yet hasn't done so. (Hey, our laws regulating marriage date back to 1880 and bear the seal of the Spanish crown)

Thats interesting...but here they wont let gay people get married, but they will let anyone else be married without a licence or a clergyman....on a tecnicality

Hey congratulations! AND you didn't have to spend all that money on a ceremony, etc.

Apparently Texas recognizes common-law marriages... however, my parents would kill me before letting me live with my boyfriend so I'm gonna have to wait for the real thing - darn!

A word of caution, truly intended to be helpful and hopefully accepted in the spirit offered.

The three most important sentences I found on the “unmarried.org†website to which we were referred were:

1. “However, this is murky legal territory and we don't recommend experimenting with it!â€

2. “The authors of this factsheet are not attorneys.â€

3. “If you have additional questions about common law marriage in your state, seek the assistance of a lawyer.â€

The only improvement I could suggest would be to (a) change the word “your†in the third sentence to read “any,†and (b) to strike the word “additional†in that sentence.

Questions as important as, and having the legal consequences of, “Am I legally married?,†are not the kind of questions which one should depend upon the Internet to answer correctly.

With respect,

Samwise

Congratulations!

Originally Posted by James Brown

A word of caution, truly intended to be helpful and hopefully accepted in the spirit offered.

The three most important sentences I found on the “unmarried.org†website to which we were referred were:

1. “However, this is murky legal territory and we don't recommend experimenting with it!â€

2. “The authors of this factsheet are not attorneys.â€

3. “If you have additional questions about common law marriage in your state, seek the assistance of a lawyer.â€

The only improvement I could suggest would be to (a) change the word “your†in the third sentence to read “any,†and (b) to strike the word “additional†in that sentence.

Questions as important as, and having the legal consequences of, “Am I legally married?,†are not the kind of questions which one should depend upon the Internet to answer correctly.

With respect,

Samwise

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I totally agree with you and respect you concern...But I only wanted you to see this out of pure humor, and not because I am putting any weight into this...I do thank you for the concern though....

Originally Posted by Nebula11

I totally agree with you and respect your concern...But I only wanted you to see this out of pure humor, and not because I am putting any weight into this...I do thank you for the concern though....

Click to expand...

Of course I understood that from the beginning, Bridget, I assure you. I am sure that you understand that my note was not addressed to you; I was just afraid that one of our TCS'ers might read that web site as being gospel, and, as you recognize, it is not. My people-dad has had some awful experiences with people getting legal advice from lay sources, such as the Internet, then calling on him to fix the mess that followed. It was often quite costly to them, but, on the other hand, was profitable to my people-dad, and helped buy some super catfood and toys for me and Miss Kitty.

My people-dad's knowledge of marriage law tends to be confined to the fact that Ann and he will celebrate their 50th anniversary in the not-too-distant future, should they and their marriage survive that long. He tells me that while everything seems simple on the Internet, he knows so little about marriage law that he couldn't handle his own divorce if he thought he could afford it.

All the very best to you, John, and your furbabies,

Samwise