Marriage Basics

Enticed by stories of a breezy environment and fallow fields, the protagonist moves to Zephyr Town to start a new life. Besides crops, animals, an outdoor market, and magical little elves, Zephyr Town also has a variety of young folks who, with a little encouragement, could move to the old farm and start a family. There are a total of 12 marriage candidates in Grand Bazaar; most are available from the beginning of the game, while a few require specific story elements to be completed before they'll move in.

As the player, you can woo all 12 candidates if you so desire, but you can only propose marriage to one person. There is no option for divorce if you change your mind.

The steps needed for getting married are:

1. Raise the person's heart color,
2. Complete the person's romantic events and heart-lock requests,
3. Gain the trust of their family,
4. Own the Double Bed, and
5. Propose marriage.

Friendship Increase

The best way of increasing affection is by showering people with gifts, gifts, and more gifts. Each marriage candidate (and villager) has items that they prefer over other items. The better you match their gift preferences, the faster their friendship levels increase. Everyone's friendship level is displayed in the Resident Info menu, found within the game's Main Menu (Y on controllers, Tab key on keyboards, etc.). The characters are sorted as they are; there is no way to shuffle the list using another parameter such as highest affection or closest birthday.

You can give one gift per day. You can increase the amount of friendship earned per gift by:

• Gift Wrapping: Each villager has a favorite color: yellow, red, or blue. This information is noted on their profile page in the Resident Info menu. After you unlock the Wrapping Stall at the bazaar, giving a gift wrapped in the person's favorite color will give a boost in earned friendship. Even if you get the color wrong, you will still earn extra friendship when giving a wrapped gift. The downside is that That's A Wrap is only available on Saturdays, and wrapped gifts do not stack in inventory.
• Branding: Winning the seasonal animal and crop festivals will increase the maximum star rank of the v ictorious contest entry. If you win the contests using the same animal or crop through the Gold Rank, that produce will become branded, showcasing to the whole world that your goods are of the highest quality. Giving a gift that has achieved branded status will earn bonus affection.
• Star Rank: Even when not branded, a gift's star-rank quality will influence earned friendship. Even giving a 1.5-star gift will earn 10% more friendship compared to giving the same gift with a 0.5-star quality. A 2.5-star gift earns 20% more, a 3.5-star gift earns 30% more, a 4.5-star gift earns 40% more, and a 5-star gift earns 50% more. Giving gifts that were festival victories, which are necessary to expand beyond 5 stars of quality, is even more impressive: a 5.5-star gift earns 60% more, a 6-star gift earns 70% more, a 6.5-star gift earns 80% more, and a 7-star gift will double the amount of affection earned (100% more) compared to the same gift at 0.5-star rank.

Other ways to boost friendship include talking to villagers every day, participating in festivals, and selling items to them when they visit as customers during the bazaar.

On the downside, you can inadvertently lower affection by giving gifts they don't like. Wrapping a disliked gift will earn the same bonus affection, but in the opposite direction. Oops! Additionally, an edible item's freshness can reduce the amount of friendship earned when the quality is "Should be good yet" or lower. Villagers prefer to receive Perfectly Fresh gifts.

Giving a gift to the person on their birthday will also double the affection earned from that item. Gift wrapping a high-quality item in their favorite color is a great way to increase friendship! Giving a HATED gift on their birthday with double the negative hit on their friendship.

Romantic and Locked Events

As you work towards impressing the marriage candidates and raising their friendship levels, you'll run into progress locks once a heart marker is full. On the day you trigger the lock, you'll see a closed lock icon appear on the candidate's portrait in the Resident Info menu. The next day, the hint message appears and covers their heart markers. At this point, take the steps necessary to clear the lock.

There are two types of locks:

• The blue "Favor" lock indicates that they need you to help with a task before you can continue on your romance journey. These request locks occur at 1 heart (white), 3 hearts (blue), 5 hearts (green), and 7 hearts (yellow). The marriage candidate will have a blue "!" above their head when they have this type of friendship cap. Talk to them to learn about their troubles, whether it's a missing item, a productivity goal, or materials needed for a project.
• The pink "Something Special" lock indicates that it is time for you to trigger a romantic heart scene. These events occur at 2 hearts (purple), 4 hearts (light blue), and 6 hearts (light green) of friendship. When the parameters are correct, a pink-colored alert box will appear on the Map icon under the on-screen clock. You may also see a pink "!" bubble over the marriage candidate's head. Open the world map and look through the pages to find the pink "!" icon that shows where you need to go to see the special scene.

When a lock triggers, any further actions taken to raise friendship will result in a locked heart icon appearing above their head. You won't gain friendship with the person while the lock is in place, so it is best to clear the lock as quickly as possible.

For Sophie and Lloyd, their 1-heart lock requests are part of the first-week tutorial: Sophie's ickle task on day 3, and Lloyd's hatchet task on day 4.

Once you reach the 6-heart event, you'll have the opportunity to confess your feelings to the marriage candidate. At some point during the scene, you'll choose between "I've fallen in love with you" or "You're a great friend." Though you must choose one of the options, either path is acceptable, as you aren't locked out of future events based on your selection.

The main difference is how the marriage candidate interacts with you after the event concludes. You will receive more affectionate dialog if you choose the "I've fallen in love with you" option, whereas the friendship path won't change the dialog much at all. There is no rival or jealousy system in Grand Bazaar, so you can confess your love to everyone without any repercussions.

Even if you choose the friendship path, you can still propose to and marry that person, as long as you meet all the marriage requirements.

Family Acceptance

Since you will be marrying into a family, you also need to have at least 4 hearts of friendship with those who are close to your future spouse. Working on building friendships with others will be required for a successful proposal.

• Arata: Samir
• Derek: Jules
• Diana: Harold
• Freya: Mina
• Gabriel: Felix
• Jules: Derek
• June: Erik
• Lloyd: Felix
• Maple: Sonia and Stuart
• Samir: Arata
• Sophie: Felix

As Kagetsu is alone, there is nobody extra to befriend :(

Double Bed

To prepare for marriage, the farmhouse will require a larger bed. This furniture is available at Wilbur's Workshop for 10,000 G after the weekly bazaar has reached Rank 4 (City Bazaar). You'll know whether you have the correct bed by looking at the blanket; the single-size bed has a urquoise blue blanket with stripes, while the double-sized bed has a light yellow blanket with a yellow flower print.

While you are unmarried, a single pillow will be on the double bed. A second pillow will appear after marriage.

Propose Marriage

The item you'll use to propose marriage is the famous Blue Feather, an item traditionally used in Zephyr Town for asking someone to become your life partner. Once you have reached 8 hearts with any of the marriage candidates, you'll receive a morning visit from Stuart and Sania. The innkeepers claim they tell every newcomer to town about the Blue Feather, but they forgot to explain it to you! They then give you a feather of your own to use for marriage.

The feather cannot be trashed or sold. You can place the feather in your farmhouse storage for safekeeping until the time is right.

To propose marriage, first ensure that you have completed all of the basic requirements. Then, wait for a day when it isn't a Saturday (as everyone is too busy with the bazaar for proposal nonsense), your chosen partner has at least 8 hearts of affection (you do NOT need to have 10 hearts), the time must be before 6:00 pm, and the weather is sunny, cloudy, or snowy. Have the Blue Feather in your bag and give it to the intended recipient as a gift. If everything is ready, then your Blue Feather will be accepted. You'll see a small scene where your future spouse will tell their family the news, followed by a romantic conversation between the two of you during the sunset. Finally, you'll return to your farm around 7:30 pm.

Independent Kagetsu doesn't have a family to break the good news to; otherwise, the rest of her proposal is the s ame as the others.

If your Blue Feather is rejected, then one of the marriage requirements has not been completed. Most often this is because you haven't met the 4-heart friendship requirement with the candidate's family.

The Wedding Ceremony

The next morning, your future spouse and Mayor Felix will visit the farmhouse to plan the upcoming wedding. The ceremony will generally take place 7 days after this morning visit, though that can change. If the 7th day would land on a festival day or on any villager's birthday, then the wedding will move to the next available day. If the 7th day lands on a Saturday or Sunday, then the wedding will take place the following Monday.

Felix will then give options for wedding attire and physical appearance. Since the wedding automatically begins when you awaken on the scheduled date, whatever hair accessory, glasses, clothes, hairstyle, and hair color selected during this time will appear on the ceremony date. There are wedding-specific feather hair accessories and wedding outfits that are ONLY available during the ceremony. Unfortunately, the game doesn't permit players to wear their wedding dress or tuxedo while managing farm chores.

The wedding will take place in the morning as scheduled. All the villagers will be in attendance, with Mayor Felix acting as the master of ceremonies. After the speeches and celebratory confetti, the game's ending credits will roll, followed by going to bed and an auto-save.

In the morning, you'll receive the Wedding Rings decoration for the farmhouse Memento shelf, and the new spouse will have moved into the farmhouse.

Post-Wedding Events

Now that you're married, a few of the festivals will change:

• Birthdays will now be celebrated by walking into the farmhouse after 7:00 pm and before midnight. You'll have a lovely dinner with your partner, whether it is your birthday, your spouse's birthday, or your (future) child's birthday.
• Starlight Night is now a cozy in-home meal with your family, rather than going to a party at someone else's house. You'll go to bed immediately after the party is over.
• On the morning of Honey Day, you'll receive a honey gift from your spouse.
• A small dinner party will also take place on your wedding anniversary by walking into the farmhouse between 7:00 pm and midnight, as long as your spouse has 8 or more affection hearts.

You can also gaze upon the night sky with your spouse. Walk into your farmhouse on a Sunday between 9:00 pm and 3:00 am on a sunny day. If your spouse has at least 9 hearts of affection, they will suggest going outside to watch the night sky. This event can repeat.

Lastly, getting married can result in having a child.