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Elopement
Type of marriage ceremony / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Elopement is a marriage which is conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, sometimes involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting married without parental approval. An elopement is contrasted with an abduction (e.g., a bride kidnapping), in which either the bride or groom has not consented,[1] or a shotgun wedding in which the parents of one (prototypically the bride's) coerce both into marriage.
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Controversially, in modern times, elopement is sometimes applied to any small, inexpensive wedding, even when it is performed with parental foreknowledge.[2]
The term elopement is sometimes used in its original, more general sense of escape or flight, e.g. an escape from a psychiatric institution. In this context, elopement (or wandering) can refer to a patient with dementia leaving the psychiatric unit without authorization.[3][2] It has also referred to a married person leaving their spouse in order to run away with a third party.[4]