Love and Marriage

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage. Or at least that's how the nursery rhyme goes. Whether you believe in this fantasy or not, being St. Valentine's Day, I think it would be worthwhile[1] to look at the act of marriage, or more specifically the verb marry.

We use marry or get married to refer to the act of marriage, or the wedding ceremony. There are just a few, small differences between marry and get marrried. 

You always need an object after marry:

Sally married Harry lat June.

But not after get married:

Sally and Harry got married last June.

Sally got married last June.

If you do use an object after get married it has to be separated by the preposition to: Sally got married to Harry.

We use be married to refer to one's marital status. Like get married, you don't need an object after be married:

Sally isn't married.

Sally and Harry aren't married.

But if you do  use an object after be married it has to be separated by the preposition to: Sally isn't married to Harry.

Of course, before the marriage, there is the engagement period.  In this case, we only use get or be with engaged to talk about this period of commitment. In this case, we only use get / be + engaged:

Sally got engaged. / Sally and Harry got engaged. 

Sally got engaged to Harry. / Sally is engaged to Harry. 

Sally is engaged. / Sally and Harry are engaged.

Unfortunately, not all good things last. We make mistakes. And so it's necessary to separate. 

Sally divorced Harry in September. 

Sally got divorced in September.

Sally got divorced from Harry in September.

Sally and Harry got divorced in September. 

Sally is divorced. / Sally is divorced from Harry. 

Sally and Harry are divorced in September.

The same rules apply to marriage as to divorce, except we use the preposition from instead of to.