In the wee hours of Monday morning, Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker held a wedding ceremony in Vegas.
The abrupt news was a surprise, but a pleasant one for everyone except Scott Disick, who once came close to marrying Kourt in Vegas himself.
But … despite holding their nuptials in an actual chapel, did Kourtney and Travis actually get that much closer?
Stunning reports reveal that they don’t appear to have obtained a marriage license … which would mean that the wedding was invalid.
Was all of this hype over nothing?
The point of Vegas weddings is usually to skirt around the rules in states that have more rules and red tape around nuptials.
But … you do still have to get a marriage license. Otherwise, you’re just LARPing a wedding.
The wedding, such as it was, took place at One Love Wedding Chapel at 1:30 a.m. on Monday.
This was only hours after Travis had performed at the Grammy awards.
Kourtney and Travis swooped in with their own photographer and with security, not allowing the venue to photograph them.
While the chapel owner has told multiple outlets that Kourtney and Travis were married — by an Elvis impersonator, no less.
However, in order for the wedding to count as anything other than a very emotional play, it needs a valid marriage license.
It is now widely reported that the Clark County Clerk’s Office has not issued a marriage license to the couple.
Each state has its own laws regarding marriage — which is, just for the record, a bonkers way for a massive country to operate.
In Nevada, the marriage license has to come before the wedding ceremony, no matter what form that ceremony takes.
You can’t flip the order — getting a license after the fact does not retroactively validate the ceremony.
Neither Kourtney nor Travis have spoken publicly about this, even though it’s huge news.
Do they regret their apparently-not-so-valid ceremony? Are they totally embarrassed that their surprise wedding was more of a rehearsal?
Or … maybe they aren’t talking for the same reason that they did it in private: because they want it to be just for them, and not for the public.
For the record, there’s really no shame in having a marriage that isn’t legally recognized.
Obviously, for generations, same-sex couples had no other choice but to marry without a marriage license.
Plural marriages for various types of polyamorous relationships also have to make complicated choices about marriage.
The disabled community is no stranger to marrying without a marriage license.
(In their case, they have to be leery of even referring to one another as spouses)
If you’re not aware, many disabled people cannot marry, because they would lose their disability benefits. It’s an outrageous injustice.
But Kourtney and Travis don’t fall into any of those categories.
Their tremendous wealth means that there are fewer financial incentives for them to legally marry.
Maybe this ceremony is enough for them, and if it comes to something like hospital visitation, they both have enough clout to bully a hospital into treating them like a legal spouse anyway?
But … this feels more like a blunder brought on by impulse.
Not the wedding itself — these two are wildly in love and have been engaged since last month.
Maybe they just screwed up slightly and didn’t have a valid marriage license … or maybe there’s something that we’re all missing that will soon be revealed.