結婚する

Marriage in America, as I imagine it is with most other countries, is a big deal. It supports a multi billon dollar industry of weddings (and as it turns out, other items such as wedding rings, wedding dresses, wedding videos, etc., etc.), court cases are decided based on what constitutes a marriage (is it a man and a woman only, or does it also count for man and a man, woman and a woman, penguin and an iguana, etc., etc.). There's also different religions and sects that recognize different numbers of partners, not just 1v.1 (personally, I think it'd be pretty tiring to have more than 1 spouse, but hey who am I to judge). Families are combined in a marriage but are unfortunately sometimes ripped apart due to marriage, marriage has always been the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for those pursuing true love and an eternal soul mate, etc. 

But for all that fuss about marriage, it can be an exceedingly simple process: people do it all the time because it's voluntarily and can be done almost any time, any place. The prototypical "shotgun wedding" in Vegas comes to mind where a couple meets for the first time and then decides to get married in a fit of spontaneity, which is allowed in the United States. It takes less time really to get married in most states (some states require blood tests, other paperwork, so I'm not sure) but at least in CA, it can realistically take under 20 minutes. Different courts around the state are set up at a moment's notice to accommodate couples, grant a marriage license (apparently you have to get state permission to get married, for a modest fee) of course, and using that license get married by an official-looking, wardrobe wearing government official licensed by the state to perform wedding ceremonies in an official-looking, beautiful scenery-painted-on-the-walls-to-look-like-a-wedding-venue, space with chairs lined up for at least 20 of the couple's  friends and family. The official-looking minister asks the couples to exchange rings, asks them to exchange vows (not even your own vows, ones that the state mandates and has the couples recite back to each other!), say "I do," do the kissing thing (not mandatory) and then it's all over. (And really, isn't that what a normal $30,000 wedding comes down to anyway?) The minister signs the paperwork, presents the marriage license, ushers everyone out of the room, then welcomes the next couple of victims, er, lovers into the room to start it all over again. It's slightly more romantic than going through a drive through at Taco Bell, people are just dressed a little better. 

I know all of this because my friend did his wedding at the Ventura County Court and saved about $30,000+ that it usually costs to do a big wedding, so there's the extravagant, go all-out, once-in-a-lifetime mindset v. a "it's-just-a-formality" mindset. It really varies from person to person whether marriage might be the most important thing in one's life (extreme) and everything has to be perfect or the "let's go pick up a marriage certificate," and that wide range also applies to what marriage means for different people: is it a contract, is it a guarantee of love, is it a checkmark on a piece of paper, is it a financial transaction, is it an obligatory ceremony to please one's parents, etc., etc., marriage means so many different things. One just hopes that their idea of marriage comes true and succeeds in doing what they set out to make it. 

Fantasize on,