See Photos: 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."