Since EA still refuses to acknowledge that they released a completely broken wedding pack, we are shifting our focus to all the wonderful wedding-related content made by the community that does not require My Wedding Stories. Today, we’ll be doing a walkthrough of the Arranged Marriage mod by the very talented MizoreYukii.
This mod is great for royalty gameplay, historical saves, contemporary families with more traditional marriage practices, or any situation where your Sims may want to get married without romance being involved. Other royalty mods by llazyneiph or KiaraSims4Mods are not required to use this mod but if you do have these mods, they are integrated into the Arranged Marriage mod.
Getting Started
First, you’ll have to download and install the mod. You can download the mod from MizoreYukii’s Patreon for free. Then unzip the folder and place the contents into your Mods folder. If you are new to installing mods and CC and need more detailed instructions, check out our article, Getting Started with Mods and CC.
Once the files are unzipped and in the right place, just run The Sims 4 to start playing with the mod!
Arranged Marriage Gameplay
There are three different ways Sims can enter into an arranged marriage with this mod. Adult Sims can arrange a marriage for another member of their household, Sims can arrange a marriage between themselves and another Sim, and Sims can simply just ask for a marriage of convenience.
Household Member Arrangement
Any young adult or older Sim in the household can arrange a marriage for another member of their household. Children and older Sims can have marriages arranged for them by their parents or grandparents. Children can only have a marriage arranged with other children. Teens can be paired with other teens or older Sims.
Young Adult Sims who enter into an arranged marriage will get the standard EA Engaged relationship bit between them and can marry at any point after the arrangement is made. Children and teens will not be able to marry until they become young adults and will have the Betrothed relationship bit between them and their future spouse, instead. Teens who are betrothed to older Sims will not have any romantic socials available between them and their future spouse until the teen becomes a young adult. Children of course have no romance options whatsoever.
To enter into an arranged marriage this way, have any young adult Sim in the household approach another young adult Sim in a different household and use the Arrange a Marriage For social. The Sims must have met before but there does not need to be a high friendship beyond an introductory level. The marriage arrangement interactions are located under Friendly > Other Sims. A picker menu will appear for you to select the Sims you’d like to arrange a marriage between.
The other Sim may or may not accept the arrangement. There are a variety of factors that determine the chances of an arranged marriage proposal being accepted or not. Moods, traits, skills, careers, reputation, fame, character values, and sentiments are all scored against each other to determine the outcome. If the player also has royalty mods installed, royalty will be considered as a factor as well.
The betrothed Sims may or may not be happy with the arrangement. Unhappy Sims can protest the marriage to their parents or grandparents. New socials will be available under the Friendly category with parents and grandparents of betrothed Sims. The betrothed Sim can enthuse or complain about the arrangement to their parent or grandparent and discuss the arrangement with them. They can also refuse to marry the Sim they’ve been paired with. Refusal will end the arrangement.
Partner to Partner Arrangement
Teen or older Sims can arrange a marriage for themselves as well. They can approach any teen or older member of a different household and choose the Arrange Marriage for Self interaction under Friendly > Other Sims. A picker menu will allow them to choose a Sim from the other household to arrange a marriage with.
The scoring is the same as arranging a marriage between two other Sims. The other Sim may or may not accept the arrangement. If the interaction fails, there will be some minor relationship loss. Two failed attempts at a marriage arrangement will prevent you from being able to ask again for 24 hours. This also goes for arranging a marriage between two other Sims.
If the future spouses become unhappy with the arrangement afterwards, they can end the arrangement with each other under the Friendly social category.
Marriage of Convenience
This is the simplest way to arrange a marriage for a young adult or older Sim. Sims can simply ask each other for a marriage of convenience. A marriage of convenience has a lower scoring requirement to succeed but it can still fail depending on different factors. Marriages of convenience are good for peasants in historical or royalty saves. It’s also a quick, easy way to get Sims married without love being involved.
Sims can ask each other to end the marriage of convenience arrangements if they later become dissatisfied with the arrangement.
Getting Married
Children and teens who are betrothed will have to wait until they become a young adult to actually marry their future spouse. The Betrothed relationship bit will age with them so when they become a young adult, the Betrothed status will change to Engaged without you having to do anything. Young adults who are engaged can get married immediately if they want to.
If the Sims are not in love, you will be asked if you want your Sims to end the ceremony with a kiss or not during the vows. If you select yes, the couple will share a small peck. If they are in love, they will autonomously share a more romantic kiss at the end of the ceremony.
Assuming one is able to become pregnant and the other is able to get Sims pregnant, Try for Baby will immediately become available for the newlyweds as a romantic social even if the couple are acquaintances. Regular WooHoo will only be available if the Sims have a high enough romantic relationship.
Future Plans
MizoreYukii lists some of her future plans for the mod, so you can look forward to later developments! Here is an excerpt from her tumblr page outlining a few features she plans to add in future mod updates.
- Optional romance blocker – Will block all romance gain if you want to keep the relationship neutral.
- More arranging options – Fixing feuds, matchmaker NPCs, ads, monarchy decided marriages and more will come over time to give you additional gameplay options.
- Social updates – Some parts will be optional; Consequences and reactions from those around you and in society based on actions, more socials, more buffs, etc.
- Dowry update – Will be optional; Sims will expect a dowry upon arranging
- Carefully made autonomy updates – Will be optional; Based on traits, etc. sims will be asking you instead to make the game more alive.
- Event updates – Meet potential suitors at an event, bride/groom shows (which is another arranging option), and more as I think of them
- After marriage update – Focuses on interactions and gameplay after being married for additional gameplay options
Our Thoughts
We had so much fun playing with this mod! Arranged marriages are something I have personally wanted in the game to help me tell my royal and historical stories. I have always just used cheats to make Sims engaged without love being involved and pretended that it was an arranged marriage but having all these options integrated into the gameplay really makes the whole thing come alive for me. This is definitely staying in my game for good. I love all the different moodlets and reactions Sims can have to the arranged marriages.
I will also be eagerly following the mod updates for some of those new features coming! They all sound fantastic!
If you’re a royalty or historical gameplay fanatic, or if you just want a way to more accurately reflect more traditional families and marriage practices in contemporary times, we highly recommend this mod!
