What's a shotgun wedding?

Question

Hi guys I'm wondering what's a shotgun wedding? What's the difference between marriage and a shotgun marriage

Answer

A shotgun wedding is usually when the women gets pregnant and they get married right away.

Answer

The last time I went to a shotgun wedding, the father of the bride actually had the wedding photographer pose a photo showing him holding his shotgun on the groom with his obviously pregnant daughter in the background in her wedding gown and bouquet standing at the altar next to their pastor with the bible in his hands.  It was done very tongue in cheek.  Shotgun weddings were traditionally a southern and western occurrence.  Historically they actually did occur.  An unwed daughter would turn up 'in the family way.'  Her mad papa would grab his shotgun and get a preacher and he and sometimes his kin would literally find and drag the usually unwilling groom to the altar.  Nowadays, nobody is actually dragging unwilling men to the altar at gunpoint but the term has stuck for a situation where an unplanned pregnancy precipitates or hastens a wedding.

Answer

It's a marriage where a couple gets married simply because she's pregnant. It's my understanding that the term comes from the idea that the girls father would force the man to marry his pregnant daughter at gunpoint (hence shotgun wedding).

Answer

When a couple gets married before she starts to show during pregnancy.

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I laugh and say we had a shotgun wedding. Met him, Got pregnant after 4 months, 4 months later got married, 4 months later gave birth. All within a year. We're on baby #3 now and 5 years of marriage. I love this man!

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My husband just got a text from his best man at our wedding (best friend) saying he was married now. His NOW wife is pregnant. That my friend is a shotgun wedding. My husbands been depressed all day that he couldn't be apart of it 😞