Recently in Marriage Category

The news has been widely discussing the sixteen-year-old aspiring actress Courtney Stodden getting married to a 51-year-old actor, as reported in depth by ABC News.

In the story of the Courtney Stodden marriage, one fact sticks out: the couple wasn't allowed to marry in California, but could in Nevada, where one only has to be sixteen and have parental consent for marriage to be able to wed. Since Georgia is also one of the states where you can get married at age sixteen (with parental consent), the Stodeen story prompted a closer look at Georgia law, particularly the requirements about getting married.

Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kim Zolciak's engagement to Kroy Biermann, NFL player with the Atlanta Falcons, was confirmed on Twitter, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"I am happy announce that YES @biermann71 and I are engaged! I'm on a cloud and so blessed!!" read Zolciak's Tweet.

Kim Zolciak and Kroy Biermann met in June, 2010, a meeting which was depicted on a Real Housewives of Atlanta episode. Zolciak and Biermann's son, K.J., was born in June of this year, reports the AJC.

Arguing that his child's homework promotes polygamy, a Cobb-County parent named Hal Medlin filed a complaint with the school district, reports WSBTV.

The situation arose at Campbell Middle School where Hal Medlin's 13-year-old daughter was assigned to read a letter from a Muslim woman from a non-western country. It contained a passage that said that the woman wouldn't mind if her husband took more wives in the future. Hal Medlin felt this was an inappropriate promotion of polygamy (and the Islamic religion), reports WSBTV.

Regardless of how the school district decides to handle the matter, it might be useful to discuss the phenomenon of taking multiple wives, also called polygamy, and the law that covers this practice.

There is nothing that is better news in the world of family law than the celebration of a long term and thriving marriage. Georgia residents can be proud, no matter what their political stripe, of native son former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, who celebrate an amazing milestone on July 7, 2011: their 65th wedding anniversary.

The couple has been “loyal to each other” and communicative, that is how their marriage has survived the stress of Navy postings, political campaigns, the White House and more, reports the Associated Press. The former president and first lady also say they live by the old prescription of trying not to go to bed mad at each other.

Doug Hutchison, star of Green Mile and an actor on the television series Lost, is now happily married to model and singer Courtney Stodden. The two had an ordinary wedding in Las Vegas, but there’s still one thing that is slightly less ordinary about their relationship — he’s 51 and she’s 16.

That’s right, there seems to be a significant age difference between the bride and groom. In fact, Fox News reports that Hutchison is four years older than his new father-in-law. Meanwhile, some people are questioning if it’s really legal to get married at the age of 16.

Kim Zolciak will now have to take on the responsibilities associated with caring for a newborn child, as the Real Housewives of Atlanta star just welcomed her first son into the world on May 31. New York Daily News reports that Zolciak's baby boy, Kroy Jagger Biermann, is named after his father. As Atlantans know, father Kroy Biermann is a defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons.

Some people might remember from a Real Housewives of Atlanta episode that Zolciak met her boyfriend at a charity event last August. The two announced their engagement in January, but the new parents are not yet married.

Most people are probably aware that the act of signing a prenuptial agreement is becoming much more common among soon-to-be-married couples in Atlanta and across the country. However, did you know that there has also been an increase among people asking for cohabitation agreements as well?

ABC News reports that there are now more than 12 million unmarried couples live under the same roof. Yet when living together, many couples want to protect their assets and legally define what property belongs to them. Hence, many couples are now contacting family law attorneys to request a cohabitation agreement.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney is now engaged to Nancy Shevell and will soon be walking down the aisle for the third time. You might think that after two marriages and losing £24 million to the most recent ex-wife Heather Mills, that the rock star would want to draft a prenuptial agreement before the wedding. Nope. The Daily Mail reports that McCartney has refused to ask his new fiancée for prenup.

Let's just hope that McCartney years from now won't regret his decision not to safeguard his £495 million fortune. McCartney and Shevell have reportedly been dating for four years and are "ecstatic" about getting married.

Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives asked the Atlanta firm King & Spalding to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) last week, but it looks like the law firm has changed its mind and now declines to take on the case. Perhaps the decision for King & Spalding to not get involved with the case came after the protests among various human rights groups.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports that the U.S. Justice Department announced last month that it would no longer defend the controversial 1996 law that defines marriage as a union only between one man and one woman. King & Spalding then reportedly contracted to take over the defense of DOMA. However the Atlanta law firm surprisingly withdrew from the case on April 25, after they received criticism from gay rights groups.

There's many psychological and emotional reasons for getting married, but what about the financial reasons? The San Francisco Chronicle reports that matrimony can be a good way to save money, increase financial stability, and even raise your credit score.

If both spouses are earning income, then that's more spending money that is available for the couple. Spouses can typically combine their money and bank accounts, which will increase the available credit that they have. More available credit often means a higher credit score. Two incomes in a marriage can also secure a significantly larger loan if you're looking to buy a new home.