As it turns out, Denny and I are already married under Iowa law, due to a funny little technicality. Don’t wig out; the wedding is still on as scheduled and you didn’t miss it.

We went to the Farm Bureau Insurance office to arrange our homeowners’ insurance for the new house on Monday. My auto insurance is expiring at the end of the month anyway, so we both decided to switch all our insurance to this new company to get the multi-line discount. As we were getting the details worked out with the agent, he said that it was advantageous to list us as married, and he figured that being engaged and buying a house together was close enough. So, according to our insurance company, we are married (this is much less of a pain than State Farm, who wouldn’t give us multi-line discounts until the actual ceremony has taken place).

From the site http://usmarriages.com (hilariously listed under “alternative lifestyles”):

“The ‘traditional’ common law marriage is one which is entered into without formalities. This type of marriage is usually defined as the intent to be married combined with living together and holding one’s self out to the world as married. States which recognize the “traditional” form of common law marriage include (as of 1998) Alabama, Colorado, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho (only if before 1-1-96), Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Ohio (only if before 10-10-91), Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Texas.”

Intent to be married? Check.
Living together? Check.
Holding oneself (weird how it’s misspelled on the website…hm…) out to the world as married? Well, if representing oneself as married on a financially and legally binding document counts as “holding oneself out…as married,” then check.

Hah. I think I was even wearing black that day. If I had known it was going to be a special occasion, I would have made a veil out of a garbage bag or something.