Accidental Marriage

""I don't have a wife. Zoe, why do I have a wife?""

- Malcolm Reynolds

Be careful when visiting foreign parts or in the company of aliens, because you never know... you just might end up married. A character (almost always a male) discovers that a seemingly innocent action now entitles him to a permanent fashion accessory—an intense young lady who insists that they are now married. Sometimes it's a delusion on her part, but sometimes it's valid—at least by the rules of the place where she grew up.

Naturally, this never happens to someone who would be willing to just walk away and leave her stranded. Or, for that matter, to someone who's willing to bite the bullet, settle down with their accidental bride, and have two and a half accidental children.

When set in modern times, the possibility of the marriage being real is usually set up by the officiant being a legitimate minister or justice of the peace.

As to the real-life possibility of an Accidental Marriage being valid (at least in North America), it's pretty remote: although courts in both the U.S. and Canada have decreed that a couple who thinks they're legally married is legally married, at the same time a marriage usually isn't considered valid without a marriage license, which has to be purchased before the wedding (and in most places both parties to the wedding have to buy the license together). This was originally meant to prevent marriage fraud, but it also allows the state or provincial government to make a little money on each ceremony.

Additionally, the "getting drunk and waking up married" type is not valid either, since the law requires that both parties enter into the relationship voluntarily and in full possession of their faculties. (This is nearly always in Las Vegas in the US version, due to the fact that unlike many states Nevada does not require a waiting period between obtaining the license and the marriage itself, and that the Clark County marriage bureau office in Las Vegas is open until midnight every day of the year, even weekends and holidays.)

Animeand Manga

 * Ranma ½ has Shampoo's village of Joketsuzoku; according to the rulebook, not only is she supposed to give a Kiss of Death to any non-Joketsuzoku girl who defeats her, but she's also supposed to marry any non-Joketsuzoku guy who defeats 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.
 * In One Piece, Boa Hancock believes that she is married to Luffy after he hugs her. However she is too shy to ever talk to him about this, and her grandmother later clears up her misunderstanding.
 * 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 fiance, 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.
 * There's a Hilarious part of that episode where two of the people they hire
 * 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 misunderstanding 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 To LOVE-Ru almost ends up accidentally married to Cute Alien Girl Lala
 * 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 killing himself because he threw it away after a fight with his fiance 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.
 * Subverted in You're 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 just piles up in the second episode of Kyo Kara Maoh. Wolfram spends all of dinner needling the new monarch Shibuya Yuuri, 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. Instead of clearing up the confusion, Wolfram's brothers urge Yuuri to 'take it back', but Yuuri, thinking they mean the insult of the slap, swears he never will. The insulted and embarrassed Wolfram then throws his cutlery on the ground, and when Yuuri picks it up, it turns out that dropping a knife is a challenge to a duel, and Yuuri has accepted by picking it up. Poor Yuuri is deeply bewildered.
 * Fanwank is that Wolfram lost his chance to decline, and Yuuri can't back out since he already swore to never take it back. Their marital state is pretty much in limbo.
 * Wolfram falls for Yuuri pretty hard before long, and becomes fanatically possessive of his fiancé, 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.
 * In Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?, Ayumu accidentally gets knocked into a female vampire, Maelstrom, and ends up kissing her on the lips. According to Maelstrom's culture, a kiss between a man and a woman constitutes a marriage, which she vows to take seriously. Underscored because at the time of said marriage, Ayumu was wearing a frilly pink dress and Maelstrom was wearing shorts. Hilarity ensues as she competes with Haruna for Ayumu's attention.
 * Sorta parodied in Tenjho Tenge when Souichiro Nagi gets tossed into a dressing roo when Aya Natsume was taking a shower. He gets to see Aya naked, and according to the rules of the Natsume clan this means she must devote herself to him. Cue to Aya acting like a weird mix of Yamato Nadeshiko and Clingy Jealous Girl in regards to him.

Comic Books

 * 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 interpreting) 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 four sentences? Best sentences ever.
 * 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...

Fan Works

 * Waking Up In Vegas had Tony marry Pepper while they were both drunk.
 * With a  themed wedding, no less!
 * Erio to Caro in this Lyrical Nanoha parody fan manga. (CAUTION: Danbooru Link. Image SFW)
 * This Glee fanfic has a version of this. It is different in that the marriage is between two girls.
 * In Manchester Lost, Aziraphale's last name has technically been "Crowley" for the past 500 years or so; they both thought that the other had arranged the divorce.

Film

 * In The Scarecrow, Buster Keaton's character is found on one knee (he was tying a shoe) by the leading lady, who simpers and says, "This is so sudden." Luckily, he is in love with her, and they elope.
 * 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.)
 * Among many other hijinks during their crazy night in Vegas, one of the characters in The Hangover manages to get himself hitched.
 * 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.
 * In The Searchers, Martin Pawley thinks he's buying a blanket from some Indians. Turns out he's married one of them instead. Ethan Edwards thinks its hilarious. He is also rather nicer to the unexpected bride than her 'husband' despite the fact she's a Commanche.
 * 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.
 * Considering that Chon spends the entire film pining for a princess without giving his "wife" a second glance, it kind of makes sense.
 * In The Muppets Take Manhattan,  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.
 * And in The Muppets, it's still left somewhat ambiguous! They cohabited a mansion outside of Hollywood, where Piggy left Kermit prior to the film, and when they're reunited in the course of events she says, "You never intended to marry me." While that's certainly true and in accordance with the events of Manhattan, it's unclear whether the marriage was legit or if she left because she was tired of waiting for him to decide to make it real.
 * 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,
 * 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.
 * Occurs in Romancing the Bride where the protagonist wakes up to find herself handcuffed to a complete stranger who tells her that they got married the night before (of course she has no memory of this).
 * In a rare instance of a woman becoming unwittingly married to a scheming man, in The Accidental Husband, the title character arranges to become married to the host of a relationship talk show as payback for having advised the former's girlfriend to break up with him.
 * Inverted in Alfred Hitchcock's only romantic comedy, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941), when the long-married title couple learn that their marriage ceremony was not valid.
 * In What Happens In Vegas, a man and a woman accidentally end up married to each other after accidently getting booked in the same room in Las Vegas and subsequently getting drunk and going out to find a wedding chapel. They initially decided that they need to get a divorce once the trip is over. The guy wins a $3 million jackpot on a slot machine, with a quarter the woman lent him. Since she's his wife now, she's entitled to half of it when they divorce. But when the judge finds out what happened, he decrees that they have to try to stay married for 6 months and attend marriage counseling, or no one gets the money.
 * In The Laws Of Attraction, two rival divorce attourneys end up married in Ireland after getting drunk in a festival while evaluating the couple's assets in their current case (on which they are on opposing sides).
 * In the 1923 silent Yiddish comedy East and West, freewheeling New York jazz baby Mollie travels to the old country with her father for a family wedding, and hilarity naturally ensues. The turning point of the movie involves a "pretend wedding" the night before the real one, which of course ends up being a valid wedding according to Orthodox Jewish law. The catch is that the groom is a young Telmudic scholar who knew that the "pretend" ceremony was binding, but didn't stop it because he was enamored with Mollie.
 * Bob in Priscilla Queen of the Desert does not seem to have married his wife deliberately and wishes he could be rid of her.
 * In Jeremiah Johnson, when Jeremiah and Del Gue are taken by surprise by some Christianized Flathead indians, Jeremiah offers them some horses just to be polite and guarantee his safe release. Unfortunately, the Flatheads have a gift economy and are bound by tradition to respond to any gift with an even greater gift. The Flathead chief compels Jeremiah to marry his daughter.
 * In The Princess Bride, Buttercup believes she is married to the Prince, because Humperdink told the abbott to "skip to the end", so the abbott says "man and wife". Humperdink goes to fight a battle and Buttercup goes numbly to her chambers to kill herself.

Literature
"''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.''"
 * Invoked in A Series of Unfortunate Events, 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. While Olaf and Violet both realize what he's doing (though Violet is unwilling), no one else does (including the minister).
 * 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.


 * It turns out later that this is not an actual marriage by Barsoomian tradition (those are, apparently, fairly lavish affairs similar to Earthly ones); it could be regarded as either a) a somewhat inept attempt at a proposal, or b) a statement that he considers her his slave. She gets mad and refuses to talk with him any further when his next statement seems to indicate that it's b, though in fact he's just clueless and has no idea of the implications.
 * The displaced Earthwoman in Anne McCaffrey's Restoree is similarly clueless about the significance of the hero's use of the possessive 'my lady' in addressing her. However on his planet marriage really is just that simple - though equally easy to get out of - not that she wants to.
 * 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.
 * Squick, or an inversion of the Hikaru Genji Plan?
 * 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 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
 * 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.
 * 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 and Wooster books are made of Accidental 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.
 * Invoked in First Lord's Fury, the sixth book of Jim Butcher's Codex Alera: Kitai is worried about how people will see her relationship with Tavi because of all the things they've gotten up to without being married. Tavi points out that they more or less accidentally fulfilled the Marat marriage custom back in the first book, and they could claim to have been married since then.
 * 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.)
 * In Much Fall of Blood Erik does this due to not knowing much about Mongol language and culture.
 * In the Star Trek novel Enemy Unseen, an ambassador from an extremely status-conscious culture is shamed that he could not protect three of his wives (they were poisoned by an agent trying to disrupt negotiations, and he was unable to treat the poison, forcing him to resort to having McCoy cure them.) so he invites Kirk to a "ceremony of repentance." At the end of it, he tells Kirk that Kirk should always take care of his new wives, and wishes him to take as much joy from them as the ambassador once did. (In a case of cultural projection, he views Kirk as a clan-head, and thus the actions of McCoy were Kirk's responsibility. Because it was demonstrated that Kirk could care for his wives better than he could, he was forced by his religious beliefs to pass their care to Kirk.)
 * In Tinker by Wen Spencer, Tinker is fluent in the everyday language of the elves. Her fluency leads the elf Windwolf to believe she understands the culture as well. When he offers her a gift "traditional for the occasion" he means the occasion of their betrothal, but she thinks he means the occasion of saving his life. When he asks if she wants to have sex with him, she thinks he means a quick roll in the hay, but he's offering his people's wedding ceremony (and a life-altering spell placed on her).
 * In J.M. Barrie's early Peter Pan story Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, it's explained that fairies get married simply by leaping into each other's arms (although a clergyman must be present). Later in the story, a character named Mamie Mannering (who was later Expied into Wendy Darling) leaps into Peter's arms, and the narrator points out that this "was a sort of fairy wedding".
 * Stardoc, by S.L. Viehl. Our heroine has been seeing a blue space hunk. Things start getting hot and heavy; that's when he springs on her that if they do the deed, they're as good as married in the sight of his culture.

Live Action TV

 * 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,.
 * However, Mal is lucky in that . Suffice to say, the marriage is invalid. Though Saffron does tease him about it the next time they meet.
 * A subplot in the Doctor Who story "The Aztecs" involves the Doctor accidentally getting engaged to a local woman.
 * Ten incarnations later, he somehow gets engaged to  off-screen in A Christmas Carol. "That was never a real...chapel..."
 * 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
 * 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. (The woman, by the way, was played by Amy Poehler, Will Arnett's real-life wife).
 * 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 Go Go Sentai Boukenger, a girl arrives at the base, saying Souta once proposed to her, though he'd never met her before.
 * 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 annull the marriage was less about ending the marriage than about Tony and Angela awkwardly dodging their own feelings on the subject.
 * Also an example of Hollywood Law, since Common Law Marriage requires both parties to have a public declaration of their mutual intent to be married in order to be valid. Just signing a motel registration book isn't enough.
 * 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 eponymous 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,
 * Most interestingly,
 * 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 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.
 * This is particularly strange, because she finds this out while looking for a higher security clearance. Then, when she's attempting to marry Hodgins, their wedding is interrupted by someone telling her what she should have already known. For several more episodes, she tries to find her husband to get a divorce, but has no idea who he is.
 * Doubly strange because, as she was intoxicated and doesn't really remember it, not to mention can't even remember what her husband looks like, she could get annulment without needing him, but for some reason chooses to go through various wacky hijinks to figure out who he is and get him to sign the divorce papers.
 * Passions had Theresa drunkenly marry Julian. No matter, he faked his own death not too long after. The series finale revealed that Theresa was free to marry Ethan because Gwen had married someone else (offscreen) when drunk some years ago. Talk about a copout.
 * Inverted in an episode of Gilligan's Island: The Millionare and his wife find out they're accidentally not married because their priest was a fraud.
 * In Farscape, the "Look at the Princess" trilogy. The wedding itself is completely on purpose (though John was REALLY forced into it by the bride's mother giving him an impossible choice.) However, he didn't realize that by kissing the princess and being found genetically compatible with her, he would be expected to marry her (since her DNA had been poisoned so no one else was compatible with her.) Damn those alien politics.
 * On Thirty Rock, a French-speaking minister accidentally married Jack to Liz instead of Avery. At first they planned to just sign the divorce papers, but then Pete pointed out that this gave Liz leverage to get Jack to stop slashing the TGS budget. Cue Escalating War as each struggles to get more leverage over the other.
 * Ross and Rachel in Friends engage in the drunk-in-Vegas variant of the trope.
 * In another Friends storyline, Joey finds an engagement ring in Ross's jacket after Rachel's had her baby. Rachel sees him with the ring and accepts Joey's "proposal". Much humorous misunderstanding later, Joey explains to Rachel that he wasn't proposing, Ross was ... and Ross says no, he wasn't proposing either.
 * On Red Dwarf, in series 6 the Dwarfers have to barter for an oxygen unit from a planet of GELFs. Their price? Lister as bridegroom to a female yeti.
 * The premise of the Taiwanese Series Drunken to Love You, is two strangers getting drunk, getting married, and falling in love.
 * An episode of M*A*S*H had Winchester "married" to a fun-loving woman after his Rn R to Tokyo.

Mythology

 * Older Than Feudalism: In 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, Percival has No Social Skills, being raised in isolation by his mother. When he 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.

Music

 * The song "Last Name" by Carrie Underwood completely states the whole "Getting drunk and waking up married" thing to a sheen.
 * So does Alan Jackson's "I Don't Even Know Your Name".
 * Possibly happened in Katy Perry's "Waking Up in Vegas", as Katy is now wearing her beau's class ring and she has fuzzy memories of an Elvis Impersonator acting as a minister.

New Media

 * One of the many thrilling and hilarious storylines in the Cumberholmes Role Play Twitter Community was having Cumberholmes marry Irene Adler-Norton in Las Vegas. They were both intoxicated at the time and gave false names, yet they still got married. The marriage came to an amicable end, especially with Mycroft pushing through the paperwork.

Theater

 * 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.

Video Games
"(Before the mission "Cutthroat") Mira Han: Oh and, um, say hello to Matthew for me; ask him why he never calls. Matt Horner: (does the "I'm not here!" gesture) (After said mission) Matt Horner: If Mira calls, I'm- I'm just busy."
 * 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. He only finds out about the whole thing seven years later when she confronts him at the Water Temple, and you better believe that he's freaked about it..
 * In the mod for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind "Julan: Ashlander Companion," there is a point where, without thinking, Julan . According to the mod, the leader of a tribe is the one who conducts marriage ceremonies, and since Julan is.
 * 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.
 * Tears to Tiara. First Arawn winds up married to Riannon 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. For four, he accidentally marries Octavia because he grabbed her hand. At the rate he's going everyone on earth is going to marry him, apparently.
 * Thankfully in the anime adaptation, Arawn only marries the first three mentioned above. Octavia doesn't marry him because he never holda her hand.
 * In Super Paper Mario, this is actually what sets the entire story into motion. Princess Peach is hypnotized into marrying Bowser (an odd couple if ever there was one) which is what fulfills a prophecy which begins the destruction of the universe. You should know what happens next: Mario comes to save the day. Of course.
 * In Blue Dragon, the fact that Marumaro is wearing exactly one hat is interpreted as a proposal of marriage by the girls of Kelaso Village.
 * You don't actually end up married, but due to your character's lack of knowledge of Echani culture in Knights of the Old Republic II, it is possible for a male character to be flirting with/courting the Handmaiden without realizing it.
 * In StarCraft II, Jim Raynor's Lancer Matt Horner once got himself married to the mercenary Mira Han after winning a card game, claiming he didn't know what the prize was going to be. A portrait of his lovely wife. Needless to say, he made little to no effort to stay in touch with her. This didn't stop her of using the alias "Mira Horner".


 * In Rachel's joke ending in BlazBlue, a pair of magical glasses make pretty much every girl (and Jin) fall madly in love with Ragna. One of them, Noel actually creates a fake marriage registration, going so far as to fake the seal. However, Nirvana had it annulled by tearing it up. And detonating the civil administration building where the copies were held.
 * In the back story of Firan MUX, two of the Seven Heroes, Bannos and Shara, find themselves married to each other when visiting the Ticanee by sleeping in the same tent together (while the crowd loudly encouraged them). Players, however, only marry through code that explicitly prevents accidental marriage (though it could happen in theory).
 * In the Mystery Case Files game Escape From Ravenhearst, the Master Detective is trapped in a seemingly endless series of puzzles and crazy situations concocted by her Back from the Dead archnemesis, Charles.

Web Comics

 * 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?
 * Subversionally, in this case the hapless guy actually does decide to ride it out, and ends up genuinely falling in love with her.
 * This page of Supermegatopia.
 * Happens in a side-story of Collar 6 where a man finds out that he became a sub to a dom woman without remembering it (due to a knock on the head) since dom/sub relationships in that universe resemble marriages in the sense that they are contracted and the slave collar serves the purpose of a wedding ring.

Web Original

 * This is the premise behind the series Husbands when Cheeks and Brady (who were dating) find out they got married. For multiple reasons they decide to remain married and see how it works out.

Western Animation

 * 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.
 * On The Simpsons, Homer and Ned marry two floozies while drunk in Vegas, despite already being married. This actually winds up being a rare subversion of the Reset Button, because a later episode has their wives track them down and get a judge to declare their legal standing (in Simpsons-world, bigamy is apparently legal in Nevada, though not in real life).
 * 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 nearly happens when the deaf Leela makes a deal with the Robot Devil, agreeing to give him "her hand" in exchange for robotic ears. According to the fine print, it 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.
 * On Total Drama World Tour, Stalker with a Crush Sierra tries to trick Cody into this by reciting the marriage vow really fast and tricking him into saying "I do," arguing it counts since she became an ordained minister on the Internet. Subverted at the beginning of the next episode when Heather points out they didn't have a marriage license or any of the other trappings in the first place (even ignoring the issues of their age or his informed consent). She continues to call him her "husband" for most of the season, though.
 * Subverted on Ugly Americans--Mark accidentally agrees to take part in some weird demonic ritual for his girlfriend Callie. A lot of the festivities seem to mean it's a wedding, either directly (white dress, ice sculptor) or indirectly (killing her ex-boyfriends), but it turns out she actually plans to suck out his soul. When he manages to get out of it (and cheers her up by dumping pig blood on her) he asks if all this means they're engaged, and she tells him not to be an idiot.

Real life

 * In Israel, pronouncing "You are consecrated to me through this ring in accordance with the religion of Moses and Israel" in the presence of two witnesses, then having sex, is a legal marriage. So what was intended as a joke was resolved by a legal divorce.