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Home · Love & Sex

Marrying Yourself Isn't Legal In the U.S., But Women Are Doing It Anyway

"Sologamy" anyone? The self-marriage movement is growing in America.
Marrying Yourself Isn’t Legal In the U.S., But Women Are Doing It Anyway
Getty Images
By Brittney Oliver · Updated October 26, 2020

Marrying yourself is not as taboo as one might expect.

Sologamy is a growing trend that’s defined by people who choose to marry themselves instead of a partner. Yes, that’s right, Women (and men) are renting out venues, purchasing wedding attire and planning elaborate, themed wedding ceremonies in which they stand before friends and family members to dedicate their life to themselves.

Although marrying yourself is not legal in the United States, services like Marry Yourself and I Married Me are pop up businesses on the Internet that offer consultations, photography, ceremony kits and merchandise to help people on their sologamist journey get to the altar. Whether it’s because the sologamist has yet to find a partner to marry by a certain age or choosing a new way to celebrate their lifestyle, people are going all out for the wedding of their dreams — to themselves.

Women of all races and ages are taking solo trips down the aisle. In 2015, Yasmin Eleby married herself at the Houston Museum of African American Culture just two days after bringing in the new year. She was a 40-year-old who made a vow to throw herself a wedding if she was not hitched by that age. “I decided I didn’t want it to be a joke. I wanted to have a celebration of myself. My wedding was going to be about me making a commitment to love myself, to honor myself and to know my self-worth,” she told ABC News.

Thanks to the 90s shows like Sex in the City, whose lead character Carrie Bradshaw married herself, women are feeling more at ease with the single life by embracing it and celebrating it in a ceremonious way, but are women being too hasty on this one, and therefore giving up on love too quickly?

While women can celebrate self-love in a host of other (legal) ways, like with a lavish birthday party or vacation to a dream destination, we can get behind the idea behind wanting to pay tribute to how much you mean to, well…you.

Be honest: Would you marry yourself?

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