Marriage - The Sims 4 Guide - IGN (2024)

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Now that Christine and Freddie are engaged, Christine can use the Romantic... > Elope With Freddie Immediately command to marry him on the spot. This is similar to how The Sims worked in its older iterations, with both Sims just swapping vows and smooches without anyone else getting in the way. This is fine if you're in a rush or are role-playing a shotgun wedding, but you will miss out on some good rewards if you do this.

Christine decides she wants an actual wedding. She can do this at any time with her phone, but be warned: the instant you choose to activate the wedding, the wedding will immediately take place. In previous versions of The Sims, you could plan ahead and figure out when you wanted weddings (and other social engagements) to take place. Not so with The Sims 4: everything always happens immediately when you give the command.

Christine learns this the hard way at first. She tests out the command at night, thinking she will just plan the wedding for the next day. Unfortunately, everyone she invites is teleported to the park in the twilight, so they're starting their “party” by being extremely hungry, tired, and needing to pee.

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No one is happy, and nothing has happened yet. Not a good sign since we're trying to get a solid rating for the social event.

Christine appeals to the time gods (i.e., we reload the save) and prepare a bit better. Around noon, she carefully contemplates her actions.

First, take a look at this screen as she prepares to send out the invitations for the wedding...

Although caterers, mixologists, and musicians are not necessary, they will make things more comfortable for the guests. However, they will need the right tools for their job: caterers need access to a kitchen of some sort, the mixologist needs a bar, and the musician needs any musical instrument.

Although Christine originally decided to have the wedding at the park, these requirements make her think twice. The park does not have a kitchen; it has grills, but hot dogs at a wedding is a little tacky. The park doesn't have a bar or musical instrument either, though we can buy one for the park anyway (and the cost is “free” since it essentially comes out of the infinite tax dollars of the city).

Christine calls an audible and decides to have the wedding at her house. After all, the side yard has enough room to hold a wedding arch and a bar. It'll be a little cramped, but it will work. She goes into Build Mode and makes the necessary arrangements. She also bakes a cake, then interacts with it and chooses “Add Wedding Topper,” then throws the cake in the fridge. It's a little odd to be making a cake for one's own wedding, but the cake is part of a minor wedding goal, so she prepares it now.

Next, she saves again, then activates the social planning again. She decides not to hire a musician since she doesn't have an instrument, but she does hire a mixologist and a caterer.

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When you hire any of those three positions, note that you can hire someone you already know, or hire an unnamed NPC. You can also have multiple ones if absolutely necessary, though most Generation 1 Sims won't know enough guests to make that worth it. When choosing who to hire, you'll see a list of all the people your Sim knows who can qualify for that position. As you see here, the only person Christine knows who qualifies for the mixologist position is Daniel Mosley.

If Christine hires an unnamed mixologist, they're guaranteed to be skilled; Daniel may have just started and could mess everything up. However, he's free, and Christine is running out of cash, so she hires Daniel anyway. This may not be a risk you're willing to take with your own Sims, especially if you're using Generation 2 or later Sims who probably have enough money to splurge on a skilled townie.

Christine finishes her plans and chooses her home lot as the site for the wedding. As with Christine and Freddie's second date, the wedding starts immediately as everyone teleports to the house. Christine changes into a special wedding dress automatically.

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Any hired help goes to their stations at once: Daniel starts mixing booze, the caterer heads for the kitchen, and if a musician had been hired, they would have gone straight for an instrument.

Christine has an obvious role to play too, but unlike dates, it's usually best to get the main goal out of the way first. Because wedding starts in the afternoon, the guests are already reasonably taken care of with high need bars. It's best to do the wedding now, then worry about feeding everyone.

A wedding arch is not necessary, but it makes for a nice picturesque addition. Christine interacts with it and chooses “Get Married.”

Here, she then waits: once that command is given, everyone on the lot automatically starts heading to watch. She needs witnesses to fulfill certain minor goals of the wedding, so she waits until they gather. If there were chairs, they would sit to watch, but Christine didn't bother to buy any.

If you wish to force the issue, you can interact with the spouse-to-be, then choose “Exchange Vows” to get the ball rolling. If you don't, as Christine chooses not to, then the betrothed will automatically do so. Vows are given, as well as smooches.

It's a happy moment for everyone involved... except for the player, because of this pop-up box that causes an unexpected problem:

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If you say “OK” on that screen, you will immediately terminate the wedding. It's nothing that crashes the game or causes any other seriously awful bug. However, this terminates the wedding and you will not be rewarded for doing it. Make no mistake: stakes are high to get the precious gold medal for doing it right.

Note that if you elope, or if you don't care, then clicking “OK” here doesn't matter; if the two Sims already live together, the pop-up box won't appear at all. We'll address Managing Households in a separate page, but suffice to say, you can manage households any time. The Sims 4 no longer requires spouses to be living under the same roof, and there is no harm in letting them have separate addresses for the moment.

So instead, Christine says “Cancel,” and the wedding continues, even though that seems like odd and unintuitive terminology. With the main goal complete, Christine starts to work on the minor goals, such as grabbing a drink from the bar and getting some food from the caterer. She also pulls out her cake from the fridge, and the AI is smart enough that the other Sims do not attempt to eat it. Christine cuts the cake and eats the first slice, thus fulfilling a minor goal, and then her guests decide to dig in as well.

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The wedding goes well, and Christine achieves a gold medal. Because of this, she gets almost a thousand simoleons' worth of free household appliances and décor in her family inventory! At the end of the wedding, everyone goes home... including the groom. Christine didn't marry Freddie just so they could live on opposite sides of the planet, but we'll take care of that in the next section. Christine ends the night by selling the bar and the wedding arch to recoup a little of the cash she spent; hopefully, she won't need the wedding arch again.

Marriage in The Sims 4, like the previous iterations, does not confer any specific, special status changes. Spouses take on a little more jealousy if their significant others engage in romantic activity with others, compared to the jealousy they felt during mere dating. Also, as previously mentioned, married Sims do not necessarily need to live in the same roof. Children can be conceived and raised when both parents are separated and regardless of their relationship, if any.

Sims can marry other Sims of the same gender. Divorce can happen, but otherwise, Sims can only marry one other Sim at a time. Also, unlike previous iterations of the franchise, no one's name is changed after a marriage. Christine National remains Christine National. If she wanted to change her name, she would interact with a dresser and choose "Plan Outfit." She could then change her name in the top-left corner, similar to the interface as it appeared in Create a Sim.