Woman Marries Herself After Being Single For 6 Years

Grace Gelder was so fed up with the dating scene and single life that
she decided to become the first person in Britain to marry HERSELF.

Grace decided to commit to the most important person in her life,
'proposed' to herself last November on a park bench and staged a full
wedding ceremony with 50 guests. According to her, after being single
for six years she had built up a brilliant relationship with herself -
and creating that bond with someone else seemed like too much hard
work.

Inspired by the Björk song Isobel, which includes the line, 'My name's
Isobel, married to myself', the Londoner said the lyric struck a chord
with her and it was then she decided to walk solo down the aisle.

Grace bought a dress, a ring, rehearsed vows and eventually wed in a
farmhouse in rural Devon watched by her sister and friends -sealing
the deal by planting a kiss on a mirror. Speaking to the Guardian, she
said:

"A few did comment, in a light-hearted way, that it was a bit
narcissitic. Obviously, if you have just announced you're marrying
yourself, it is plainly a statement of self-love, and I was under no
illusion how self-indulgent that might appear. But I was completely
comfortable with my motivations. I'd been on a journey of personal
development using meditation, dance and performance to increase my
self-awareness. Included in this was a Shakti Tantra programme focused
on sexuality and how this was bound up with making agreements with
yourself and other people.

Sitting on that park bench, it dawned on me that a self-marriage
ceremony witnessed by other people would potentially be this massively
powerful means of making those agreements stick."

Grace was wed by her friend Tiu - a celebrant - who backed her plans
and said the deal would set her up for a new phase of life. But Grace
suffered a case of the pre-wedding jitters only a month before the big
day and had to be convinced she was doing the right thing.

Although the wedding holds no legal ground, Grace is glad she is no
longer a 'single' lady.
She added:

"It felt like a really big deal saying my vows, which were mostly
about me promising to take more risks in matters of the heart. I
really don't see it as any kind of feminist statement, but creating a
wedding of this kind on my own terms felt incredibly empowering."