Marriage in Stardew Valley is one of the game’s longest quest chains, and it is gated behind requirements that are never explained on screen. Plenty of players max out a villager’s hearts, wait for something to happen, and eventually assume the game is broken. It is not; there are three separate prerequisites, and one of them has nothing to do with romance at all. Here is exactly how you get married in Stardew Valley, step by step.
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The short version: how marriage works
You need to raise a candidate to eight hearts, give them a Bouquet from Pierre’s to start dating, raise them to ten hearts, upgrade your farmhouse at least once through Robin, and then buy a Mermaid’s Pendant from the Old Mariner who appears on the beach on rainy days. Giving that pendant to your partner is the proposal, and the wedding takes place three days later on your farm.
| Game | Platform | Genre | Why It’s Great | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stardew Valley | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Mobile | Farming sim | Twelve marriage candidates with genuinely distinct written arcs and heart events | 9.6/10 |
| Fields of Mistria | PC | Farming sim | Gorgeous pixel art and one of the warmest relationship systems in the genre | 8.7/10 |
| Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town | PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch | Farming sim | The classic template for farm-life romance, faithfully remade | 8.2/10 |
| Animal Crossing: New Horizons | Switch | Life sim | No romance, but the best villager-friendship loop and island decorating in games | 9.0/10 |
| My Time at Sandrock | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch | Crafting sim | Fully voiced romance arcs and a workshop-building loop with real depth | 8.4/10 |
| Coral Island | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S | Farming sim | A tropical farm sim with diving, reef restoration and a large dating roster | 8.0/10 |
| Rune Factory 4 Special | PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch | Farming RPG | Combines dungeon crawling with farming and marriage, and does both well | 8.8/10 |
| Spiritfarer | PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch | Management adventure | Relationship-driven management with one of gaming’s most affecting stories | 9.1/10 |
Step one: choose from the twelve candidates
Who you can marry
There are six bachelors and six bachelorettes, and any player character can marry any of them regardless of gender. The bachelors are Alex, Elliott, Harvey, Sam, Sebastian and Shane. The bachelorettes are Abigail, Emily, Haley, Leah, Maru and Penny. Each has a set of heart events at two, four, six, eight and ten hearts, plus a fourteen-heart event that only unlocks after marriage.
Raising hearts efficiently
You can give each villager two gifts per week, and loved gifts are worth far more than liked ones. A gift on a villager’s birthday counts for a large multiplier, so noting birthdays on the calendar outside Pierre’s is the highest-value habit in the whole friendship system. Talking to someone daily also adds a small amount, and it costs nothing but a detour. Avoid giving disliked or hated items, which subtract points.
The eight-heart ceiling and the Bouquet
Romance candidates cannot exceed eight hearts until you formally start dating them. To do that, buy a Bouquet from Pierre’s General Store and hand it to them once they are at eight hearts. Their heart meter then turns pink and can climb to ten. Skipping this step is the most common reason players stall out.
Step two: the requirement nobody expects
Upgrade your farmhouse first
The Old Mariner will not sell you a Mermaid’s Pendant unless your farmhouse has been upgraded at least once. That first upgrade is commissioned from Robin at the carpentry shop, costs gold plus a large quantity of wood, and takes a few days to build. It adds a kitchen and, crucially, a bedroom large enough for two. Get this started early, because the build time can otherwise leave you waiting on a rainy day you have already found.
Repair the beach bridge
The Old Mariner appears on the eastern side of the beach, past the broken bridge. Repairing that bridge requires a stack of wood and is worth doing anyway, because the tide pools beyond it are the only reliable source of coral and sea urchins. Do it before you need the pendant. Long wood-gathering sessions are exactly when input comfort matters, and our gaming mouse buying guide covers grip styles that reduce strain.
Step three: buy the Mermaid’s Pendant and propose
Finding the Old Mariner
On any rainy day, head to the beach during daylight hours and walk east past the repaired bridge. A cloaked figure will be standing there. Speak to him and, provided your partner is at ten hearts and your farmhouse is upgraded, he will offer the Mermaid’s Pendant for a substantial sum of gold. He does not appear on clear days, and snowy Winter weather does not count as rain, so most players buy the pendant in Spring, Summer or Fall.
Giving the pendant
Hand the pendant to your dating partner exactly as you would give a gift. They will accept, and the wedding is scheduled three days later. On the wedding morning the ceremony plays out on your farm with the whole town in attendance, and your spouse moves into the farmhouse with their own themed spouse room attached to the bedroom.
What changes after the wedding
Married spouses help around the farm, watering crops, feeding animals and occasionally repairing fences, and they will sometimes leave gifts on the kitchen table. Keep giving gifts and talking to them, because letting affection decay after marriage is possible and the fourteen-heart event is worth seeing. After a week of marriage, and with the second farmhouse upgrade that adds a nursery, your spouse will raise the subject of children. If you tend to play these long multi-year saves in one sitting, our ergonomic gaming chair guide and our blue light monitor guide are both worth a look.
Special cases and reversals
Krobus is a roommate, not a spouse
The shadow merchant living in the Sewers can move in with you if you reach ten hearts with him and give him a Mermaid’s Pendant, but the relationship is explicitly platonic. He becomes a roommate rather than a spouse, with no wedding ceremony and no children. It is the game’s option for players who want household company without romance.
Marrying another player in multiplayer
In co-op, players can marry each other using a crafted Wedding Ring rather than a pendant. The crafting recipe is sold by the Traveling Cart, and the ring itself requires iridium and a Prismatic Shard, which makes it a mid-to-late game project. Player marriages allow shared farmhouse space and children.
Divorce and starting over
If you change your mind, there is a book on the desk in Mayor Lewis’s manor that files for divorce for a large gold fee, processed by the next morning. Your former spouse will resent you afterwards, though the Witch’s Hut offers a shrine that erases their memory of the marriage and resets the relationship to neutral. That final upgrade path takes a fair amount of grinding, and if your machine struggles with a heavily modded save, our gaming laptop buying guide and our budget gaming PC buying guide cover sensible options.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can I not raise a candidate above eight hearts in Stardew Valley?
Romance candidates are capped at eight hearts until you begin dating them, which requires giving them a Bouquet purchased from Pierre’s General Store. Once the Bouquet is accepted their heart meter turns pink and can be raised to the ten hearts needed before the Old Mariner will sell you a Mermaid’s Pendant.
Where do I find the Mermaid’s Pendant?
The Old Mariner sells it on the beach during rainy days, standing on the eastern side past the bridge you must repair with wood. He will only make the offer if your chosen partner is at ten hearts and your farmhouse has received its first upgrade from Robin, so complete both before hunting for a rainy day.
Can I marry more than one villager at a time?
No. You can date several candidates simultaneously, but they will eventually find out and become upset, and you can only be married to one spouse. Proposing with the Mermaid’s Pendant locks in that choice until you file for divorce at Mayor Lewis’s manor for a substantial fee.
How long after the wedding can I have children?
Your spouse raises the topic roughly a week after the wedding, provided your farmhouse has been upgraded a second time to include a nursery. Accepting leads to a child arriving after a short delay, and a second child can follow later once the first has grown, giving a maximum of two children per household.
