Accidental Marriage - Television Tropes & Idioms

Ranma 1/2 has Shampoo's village of Joketsuzoku; according to the rulebook, not only is she supposed to give a Kiss Of Death to a girl who beats her, but she's also supposed to marry a guy who can beat her. Between being a guy who defeated her in front of her whole village (admittedly in the wrong form, thanks to his Gender Bender curse), followed by knocking her out cold again in male form in her first appearance in Japan, Shampoo and her great-grandmother insist that Ranma is engaged to her.
- Similarly, though she doesn't actually believe Ranma to be married to her, Kodachi develops her obsessive crush on him after Ranma rescues her from a fall. She's so infatuated that she insists that all of Ranma's other Arranged Marriages are usurpers who are trying to steal Ranma from her. Despite the fact Ranma has no interest in her whatsoever.
Lum's insistence that she is married to Ataru because he declared "Now I can get married!" (meaning to his girlfriend Shinobu) after winning the Tag Race in the first episode of Urusei Yatsura.
In Tenshi ni Narumon, Yuusuke stumbles over Noel, who just happens to be napping in the nude in the middle of a forest. Their lips meet and she awakens, convinced that they are now married. This results in her entire kooky family moving into (and totally redesigning) Yuusuke's house.
Neneko's belief that she "gave up her flower" and is now married to Tomokazu because he accidentally fondled her rear end in an early episode of Yumeria.
In Photon, after getting the kana for Baka drawn on his forehead by his mischievous childhood friend Aun, the title character draws the same characters on the forehead of the sleeping Keyne. Since in Keyne's culture, a man proposes to a woman by drawing his "personal symbol" on her forehead, Keyne awakens, discovers what happened, and concludes that she and Photon are engaged.
As the plot of DearS, the protagonist Takeya bonds with Ren through a direct kiss in the very first episode — then spent half of the series wondering what was going on between two of them.
Yuna Miyama from Maburaho declares Kazuki her husband in the first episode.
Revolutionary Girl Utena: Utena Tenjou is surprised to find herself engaged to Anthy, the Rose Bride, after winning a duel against her previous fiancé Saionji.
Subverted and parodied in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Even though Itoshiki's hometown will marry anyone who makes eye contact, Itoshiki manages to spend the night there unmarried, even though in a desperate attempt to get him married, his family have sent various people who are good at making eye contact after Itoshiki... including footballers, thugs and a hideous 100-eyed monster.
- Similarly, both of the times he gets into embarassing situations with uber perfectionist Chiri, she demands that he follows through by marrying her.
Dragon Ball, of course. Though it was actually accidental engagement, the relationship between Chi Chi and Goku was largely based on his assumption that "married" was a kind of food. When the musunderstanding is cleared and Chi Chi gets depressed about it, though, Goku actually agrees to go through it anyway since he gave his word to her. They eventually have two children together.
Rito Yuuki from ToLoveRu almost ends up accidentally married to Cute Monster Girl Lala but she eventualy realizes wasn't confessing to her and cancels the engagement.
In Axis Powers Hetalia, Japan demands that his partner Italy marry him after the latter hugs and kisses the former on the cheek. They don't seem to go through with it, though, since later Italy is paired up with his other partner, Germany
Rurouni Kenshin has an episode devoted to this trope, as Kenshin is told to give his girlfriend Kaoru a ring he found — the poor girl believes this to be an engagement proposal. By the end of the episode, though, all is confessed (and the ring is returned to the original owner, who was this close to kill himself because he threw it away after a fight with his fiancée) and there is no actual marriage. There's still a kinda sweet scene at the end where Kenshin makes up with Kaoru by bringing her flowers, though.
In Seto no Hanayome, the main character Nagasumi is rescued by Seto Sun — the daughter of a Yakuza mermaid family. Turns out she would have to be executed for breaking the mermaid code of secrecy by saving Nagasumi, unless he marries her. So yeah...
Subverted in Youre Under Arrest when Yoriko accidentally gets engaged to a foreign prince when she held his hand. He shrugs it off in the end saying his customs don't apply in Japan.
This trope makes one of the most memorable characteristics of Kyou Kara Maou, in that Wolfram, the former Maou's youngest son, spends all of dinner in the second episode needling the protagonist and new monarch Shibuya Yuuri, to whom he has taken a profound dislike for his obvious uselessness, and succeeds in angering him by insulting his mother—whereupon Yuuri slaps him across the face. Unbeknownst to Yuuri, this constitutes a proposal of marriage, which leaves Wolfram seething at the humiliation. He then throws a great deal of cutlery to the ground, and when Yuuri starts picking it up, gloats because picking up a knife someone has dropped is an agreement to duel. Poor Yuuri is deeply bewildered. Yuuri wins. By activating his magic powers in a fit of rage at Wolfram's bad sportsmanship. It's unclear whether having lost the duel means Wolfram isn't allowed to decline, or if he just doesn't want to anymore, but the engagement stands.
Wolfram falls for Yuuri pretty hard before long, and becomes fanatically possessive of his fiance, who is both naturally oblivious and in denial about this whole 'engaged to a guy' thing. Hilarity Ensues.
- In a later episode a childhood friend of Wolfram's who considers them engaged due to similar circumstances appears, and Yuuri falls for the knife trick again, only this time he also accidentally points a spork at the challenger, which formally indicates that you have stolen someone's lover and intend to fight for them. Wolfram is touched.
- The writers love this trope.

Played straight in a DC Elseworlds issue (Detective Comics Annual 7 (1994)). Pirate Batman ("Captain Leatherwing") rescues a Noble Savage princess, and gives her a European dress to replace her torn clothing. Later, the princess (with her father translating) gives Leatherwing a bracelet. He accepts, not knowing that this exchange means that they are now married... to the later consternation of Pirate Catwoman.
- Those two sentences? Best sentences ever.
  - There were four, genius...
In Justice Society of America, the Huntress of an Alternate Universe is not married yet, but she tells Power Girl how her DA boyfriend had proposed, the Joker had attacked, maiming him, and she had never had a chance to refuse him — and now she can not abandon him.
In Incredible Hercules #134, "W.W.T.D.? (What Would Thor Do?)", Herc, standing in for his absent buddy Thor, travels to Svartalfheim to confront the warlike Dark Elves and their queen Alflyse. After passing the three tests to prove he really is Thor (he actually fails the test of "Show Some Leg" but an enthusiastic Alflyse declares 2 out of 3 is good enough) there's a night of respectably restrained celebration and Hercules wakes the next day to find Alflyse has accepted him as her husband. There are worse fates...
- Subverted in that she does know he's not really Thor, she's just messing with him.

The main character in Corpse Bride enacts a mock wedding vow rehearsal, not knowing that the "branch" he places the ring on at the end is actually the finger of a restless bride's corpse until it's too late.
- The Corpse Bride was loosely based on a Russian-Jewish version of an older Jewish folktale, making this Older Than Print.
In Stargate, Daniel finds himself offered a bride because he's believed to be a messenger from the gods. He winds up falling in love with her, a rare instance of the accidental marriage staying together. Well, until she gets possessed by a Goa'uld in the series.
In The Searchers, Martin Pawley thinks he's buying a blanket from some Indians. Turns out he's married one of them instead.
In Shanghai Noon, Chon Wang ends up accidentally married (from his POV) to the Sioux chief's daughter (who knew exactly what she was doing). She follows him around for the rest of the movie, periodically saving his ass, only to end up trading him in for Roy at the end.
In The Muppets Take Manhattan, the play that the Muppets are trying to get produced includes a scene where Kermit marries Miss Piggy. When the play is staged, a real minister plays the minister's role. There would be some debate after that film, in the Muppet-Verse, whether Kermit had actually married Miss Piggy. (He certainly didn't want anything like that, but The Show Must Go On...)
- Years later they're still playing off this one. in the extras section of the first season Muppet Show DVD collection are a series of interviews with the muppets. Piggy confirms that they are, Kermit is adamant that they aren't... and no one even ever says the "M" word.
Subverted in the A Series Of Unfortunate Events film, when Count Olaf attempts to marry Violet by having her act as the bride to his groom in a play, and having the minister be played by a real Justice of the Peace. Subverted in that, while Olaf and Violet both realize what he's doing, no one else does (including the minister).
- Except Klaus and Sunny, of course.
At the end of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Hillary and Bryce nearly get married in an African ceremony which involves getting their hair braided, or so they are told.
The Dick Van Dyke/Disney movie Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN had this at the end. The main character is coaxed into dancing with Wednesday, and her father laughingly says, "Hey, Wise Guy do pretty good marriage dance!" Crusoe accidentally pushes Wednesday down while protesting, and only gets saved from the angry native girls by a Navy helicopter.

In Patricia Briggs' Steal the Dragon, the male lead sets up a "communication spell" for the female lead that he knows is the first part of his people's marriage ceremony. He thought he could undo the spell after the Big Bad was defeated. However, the bride accidently completes the magical ceremony on her own, making this an accidental marriage for both of them.
In Edgar Rice Burroughs's A Princess of Mars, John Carter listens to Dejah Thoris call him "my chieftain" with what he admits (with hindsight) was total cluelessness, and then calls her "my princess" inspiring much mirth on her part.
Dejah Thoris caught her breath at my last words, and gazed upon me with dilated eyes and quickening breath, and then, with an odd little laugh, which brought roguish dimples to the corners of her mouth, she shook her head and cried:
"What a child! A great warrior and yet a stumbling little child."
"What have I done now?" I asked, in sore perplexity.
"Some day you shall know, John Carter, if we live; but I may not tell you. And I, the daughter of Mors Kajak, son of Tardos Mors, have listened without anger," she soliloquized in conclusion.
Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins. Geoffrey Delamyn and Anne Silvester accidentally get legally married in 19th century Scotland by each writing a note referring to the other as their spouse. At the same time, Geoffrey is trying to get rid of Anne by manipulating his friend Arnold into posing in public as her husband- believing that this will cause Anne and Arnold to become married. One of Wilkie Collins' reasons for writing the book was to encourage reform to Scottish marriage law.
In David Eddings' The Elenium, Sparhawk has to borrow Queen Ehlana's ring to work magic along with his identical matching ring. When he returns the ring, he can't tell the difference but she can. She takes him giving her his ring as a proposal and accepts. He can't very well argue when the queen says they're engaged.
- Squick because Sparhawk was her childhood bodyguard and only real father figure.
About halfway through Esther Friesner's Majyk by Accident, the protagonist is saddled with a ~~elven~~ Welfin wife when he takes her hand to go to dinner. She's pleased because she loathes the Welfin way of life, the other Welfies are pleased because it means they can make demands of the protagonist, and nobody really cares what he thinks of it.
Du Chaillu from Terry Goodkind's Sword Of Truth books. Richard Rahl, at that point known as Cypher, saves her life, and proceeds to kill thirty warriors from her tribe, including her 5 husbands, proving through their prophesy that he's their savior, and she's now his wife. He, being Richard, tries to talk her out of it via pure logic and a desire to make people just think! We then proceed to write this whole incident off until The Temple of the Winds, when we realize, "Oh shit, Kahlan is Richard's third wife."
Subverted in Jack Higgins' novel The Wrath of God: the narrator rescues a Yaqui girl from rape by corrupt police and she hangs a medallion around his neck. He thinks it's just a gift to say thanks, but when he learns he's now married by Yaqui law, he likes the idea. Unfortunately, someone else has given him a dangerous mission, and he may not survive to settle down with the girl.
In the Wheel Of Time books, when Mat discovers that Tuon is the woman he is fated to marry, he has a brief breakdown in which he proclaims that she's his bloody wife three times in a row. Turns out that in her culture, each party saying such three times is the essential part of the wedding ceremony, and Tuon's 3x response can take place any time within the next year.
- The time is stated just after Mat finds out that he performed the first half of the ceremony. Doesn't matter as she completes it long before time is up.
- And then there's Rand and Aviendha. Aviendha tries to keep an angry distance between them, but thanks to Rand's ignorance of Aiel culture his attempts to apologize to her keep turning out to be Aiel courtship rituals.
  - And Nynaeve claims she and Lan are engaged, under Two Rivers customs, because he gave her his ring. In a mixture of subverting reader expectations (since this is a real, modern custom, sort of) and possible retcon, she's lying because she really, really wants to marry him.
Crawford, one of the protagonists of Tim Powers' The Stress Of Her Regard, finds himself unwillingly married to a silicon-based vampiric life form, having slipped a wedding ring onto the finger of a statue so he wouldn't drop it in the mud during a rainstorm.
PG Wodehouse: The Jeeves books are made of Accident Engagements. Add to that the fact that poor Bertie can't seem to decide whether or not he wants to stay a bachelor...
Dune. Paul Atreides asks Fremen girl Chani if she'll carry his water tokens, startling her somewhat. Fortunately an amused Stilgar recognises that Paul is simply ignorant of what this implies among Fremen.
In First Lord's Fury, the sixth book of Jim Butcher's Codex Alera, Tavi actually invokes this trope to try and reassure Kitai of the nature of their relationship by saying their adventures in Furies of Calderon married them by Marat custom. She doesn't buy it, and later sets a challenge for Tavi to fulfill before they are officially married: Kill the Big Bad.
In the Liaden Universe novel Agent of Change, Val Con gives Miri a small switchblade knife for protection — causing the alien Clutch Turtles with whom they are traveling to assume Val Con and Miri had gotten married. (Knives and rituals associated with them make up a significant part of the Clutch Turtles' society and culture.)

Mal's wedding to Saffron in the Firefly episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds" supposedly occurred by accepting a wreath, drink, and dance from the young lady. However, "Saffron" was actually a con-artist, taking advantage of the obscure tradition to get aboard without raising suspicion, with the ultimate intent of hijacking the ship.
A subplot in the Doctor Who story "The Aztecs" involves the Doctor accidentally getting engaged to a local woman.
- To this troper, he actually seemed quite happy about it, and it later turned out to be a very good thing, although of course he didn't stay with her.
One episode of Hey Dude! had a subplot where a group of generically Eastern European guests were visiting the ranch, and one character accidentally proposed marriage to a young girl.
In Happy Days, Fonzie and Jenny go as bride and groom to a costume party on a yacht and, after an incident involving a performance with a minister played by the ship's captain, think they've accidentally gotten married, to Jenny's delight and Fonzie's horror.
In Arrested Development, cousins George Michael and Maeby wind up accidentally married while performing a mock wedding for a group of senior citizens. However, because of the incredible UST between them, and the fact that they aren't even related by blood, this is both a bit less Squicky and infinitely more funny than it might otherwise be.
- GOB once met a woman with whom he intended to have a one-night stand; instead, they ended up married for a few episodes thanks to a drunken dare.
In a massive oversimplification of Greek marriage customs, Full House had an episode where both DJ and Jessie unknowingly married Greeks by walking around the table with them. The problem was easily solved, though: divorce was achieved by walking around the table backwards.
In GoGo Sentai Boukenger, a girl arrives at the base, saying Souta once proposed to her, though he'd never met her before. Turns out she's actually a cat. He'd once found her injured and took care of her, and had said he wished he could keep her. She sought him out after becoming human due to a shapeshifting-inducing Mac Guffin.
Just Shoot Me: Maya and Elliot go to a mass wedding thinking that Dennis went there to marry a model and end up unwittingly married.
On Married With Children, a recently divorced Marcy goes to a banking convention, has far too much to drink at a party, and wakes up the next morning married to the bartender from the night before. The bartender, Jefferson d'Arcy, played by Ted McGinley, would be Marcy's husband for the rest of the series.
On Who's The Boss, after a trip to South Carolina in which they signed in to a motel as "Mr. and Mrs", Tony and Angela somehow ended up as Common Law spouses under S.C. law. The ensuing effort to anull the marriage was less about ending the marriage than about Tony and Angela awkwardly dodging their own feelings on the subject.
A brawl on TNA impact! during Kurt and Karen Angle's wedding re-vow ceremony resulted in Kurt's lackey A.J. Styles getting married to Karen. The two even went on a "honeymoon" the following week.
On Drake And Josh, Josh's foreign internet pal comes to visit and through a supposed friendship ceremony, Drake becomes married to the girl.
Similar to the Muppets example above, in The Office (US), Dwight helps Angela rehearse her wedding to Andy by playing Andy (while Andy plays the father of the bride.) They exchange "mock" vows, and Dwight later reveals that the German-speaking Mennonite was a real minister and that he tricked Andy into signing a marriage certificate for them, so they're actually married. Angela is not at all pleased.
A variation of this comes in a first-season Taxi episode. John Burns picks up a girl at Mario's with the line, "Let's just skip everything and get married." Not only does it get him a date, but she accepts his proposal. (As John later explains to the other cabbies, each of them was expecting the other to call it off...but they went through with it.) Later, the couple plan to get the marriage annulled, but by the episode's end they actually decide to make a go of it.
In the Babylon 5 episode "The Parliament of Dreams," the main characters, as part of a "Galactic Religions Week" on the titular station, experience an extremely confusing Minbari religious ceremony involving eating red fruit and some intense looks between the Minbari Ambassador Delenn and the human commander, Jeffrey Sinclair. As it turns out, although the people attending it were told that it was a "rebirth" ceremony, Sinclair's lover informs him that it could also have doubled as a wedding. He jokes that he didn't think that Londo and G'Kar were one another's type.
In Stargate SG-1 O'Neill eats a fruit pizza and wakes up married to the girl that offered it to him. Hilarity Ensues, the marriage is called off until she comes back to comfort him and the planet is saved.
In a variant, Angela on Bones was shocked to learn that a drunken-party ceremony she'd participated in on Fiji was actually considered a valid marriage by the U.S. State Department. She'd been so drunk that she forgot it'd happened, and hadn't known that the presiding party-goer was legitimately authorized to perform weddings.

The Aeneid: Aeneas is "married" to Dido in this manner. Juno has the nymphs singing and the lightning crashing, and to Dido, this resembles a marriage carried out by the gods. But to Aeneas, it was just a few hours alone in a cave during a storm with a nice girl. You know what that means... well, Aeneas sure knew.
In Arthurian legend, when Raised By Wolves Percival first meets his future love interest he exchanges rings with her, unaware of what his gesture signifies. Later, when he figures it out, he sets off in search of her to make good his proposal.

In the farce Engaged by W. S. Gilbert (of Gilbert And Sullivan fame), it is claimed that a man and woman can become legally married in Scotland simply by declaring themselves to be husband and wife. Two characters claim to be married in order to repel a spurned suitor, and then discover that they've inadvertently become married. But it turns out that although the cottage they were visiting was in Scotland, the yard they were standing in was in England.

In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Link accepts the Zora's sacred jewel so he can open the Door of Time, only to discover with some confusion that he is now engaged to Princess Ruto.
- Amusingly, it's implied that he never realizes.
In the mod for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind "Julan: Ashlander C Ompanion," there is a point where, without thinking, Julan tells the female player character she should marry him after he becomes leader of his tribe. According to the mod, the leader of a tribe is the one who conducts marriage ceremonies, and since Julan is by now said leader, he and the PC are now married.
In episode 3 of Wallace And Gromit's Grand Adventures, Wallace accidentally proposes to Miss Flitt while picking up a lugnut that she mistakes for a wedding ring. Sorting this out takes up a good part of the plot of episode 4.
Good god, Tears To Tiara. First Arawm winds up married to Rhianon as a political thing. Then he marries Morgan to save her from getting executed, and it's not even entirely clear if he realizes this one. Then he burns a seal pelt that belongs to Llyr, so that's three. Also accidentally marries Octavia because he grabbed her hand. At the rate he's going everyone on earth is going to marry him, apparently.

In a rare female victim example, the main Earth character in Our Home Planet accidentally gets married to the younger of the D'bo Sisters by biting her on the middle finger. It was in self-defense because they were trying to eat her and her roommate. And then she tried to invalidate the marriage by claiming her roommate was her wife, causing the both of them to be married. Then the alien prince Julian did the same thing when trying to defend himself.
This is pretty much the entire point of the plot of Marry Me: A guy is dragged to a concert by his lesbian friend who adores the singer and has a sign that reads "Marry Me." She asks him to hold up the sign for her while she goes to the bathroom. Guess what the singer does next?

Family Guy, when Chris is serving in the Peace Corps in South America, he is accidentally married to a tribal chief's daughter when he leads the tribe in a random song-and-dance number.
Fry and Leela of Futurama once got married without either of them quite knowing how it happened; the entire courtship and wedding happened during a time warp, with the result that they found themselves standing at the altar with no memory of how they got there. After a second timeslip, they're in divorce court.
- Also happens when the deaf Leela makes a deal with Beelzebot. He points at her hand, making her think he wants her physical hand in return for hearing, but what he actually meant was her hand in marriage.
Subverted on King Of The Hill when Peggy and Hank hold a mock wedding for Bobby and Luanne to try to end a prank war between the two. Bobby thinks he got Luanne pregnant by replacing her birth control pills with candy, and Hank tells him he can atone by making an honest woman of her, though Luanne knows it's a joke. After the fake ceremony performed by Bill, Hank and Peggy tell Luanne Bill really is a minister, so they really are married. Bill gives the truth away before the end of the episode.

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