This past winter, my parter and I were off-and-on sick from basically December to March. We were also ramping up our househunt in anticipation of our lease expiring in summer, and I was looking into registering us common-law as a convenient way of protecting ourselves and this "asset" (from each other).
One night in particular, my partner was sick and feverish.
"I saw you were looking at common law stuff," he said as we got ready for bed. "Have you thought about maybe, more than common-law?"
And because I view these kinds of things as a relationship between us and the government and was looking at common-law registry for the purposes of protecting this asset, I said, "So like, common-law with a pre-nup? Yeah sure. I mean, if we're doing this because it makes sense, then I have no problem adding more stuff if it makes sense."
"There's more than just the legal aspect to consider," he countered sleepily. "For example, there's also the social aspect of, say, a wedding."
My partner is a History major and I recalled the time he described a sort of social contract (oath swearing) in which, like, a landowner provided treasure (often including a ring or jewellery) in exchange for the promise to fight (defend the land, etc) when called upon; and that the publicity of the ceremony was a large part of what kept it enforced. And I wondered if that was where he was going with this.
"And there's lots of ways a wedding can be socially significant," he went on. "It can be a public proclamation. You could invite all your [family of origin] and show off, 'I'm doing great without you in my life!' Or you can make a point of inviting this family but not that family. Or invite this family and not that family, knowing that this family will tell that family so then they'll know they weren't invited."
He continued like this, eyes half-closed as we sat in bed. And I tried to understand what he was saying.
"Wait. Wait wait wait," I said finally. "Are you. Are you proposing.... a spite wedding?"