Hey guys, I'm hoping one of you script-guru's can help me out with a problem.

Since firing up Skyrim with all the official DLC's, I started out again as a fresh new character. However, it seems I've run into a glitch with Maramal and the wedding ceremony at the Temple of Mara.

Everything works perfectly up until the ceremony. There Maramal asks my spouse-to-be the question and they answer with 'I do, now and forever'.

At that point Maramal simply stops and control of my character returns to me. He doesn't proceed to the stage of asking me the question, nor do I get the 'I do/Stop the wedding' dialogue options. Clicking on Maramal states 'This person is busy' and my spouse-to-be has a standard 'happy to get married' line.

I've tried everything I could think of, but nothing allows me to proceed beyond that point and attempts at forcing it with SetStage 100 still fails the quest upon leaving the temple. Even with all the Unofficial Patches enabled this glitch seems to persist.

I've done some extensive reading on the internet and it seems several people experienced exactly the same issue. Some believe this behaviour started after patch 1.7 was released.

So I was wondering if someone could check up on the script-sequence for me and see if there is an issue with them? The exact point of the issue should be right after the spouse-to-be states 'I do, now and forever'.

Something tells me that it may have something to do with the patch 1.7 (issues with actors?) and/or the Hearthfire DLC (because of the ability to move to the new homes), but as I'm not overly familiar with scripting I can't verify this. Another thing I noticed is that certain NPC's like the Courier don't 'force-dialogue' either after a while. Usually they came running in and opened up dialogue automatically, but now I have to manually click on them in order for them to start. Maybe this behaviour is related?

If anyone can make (or point me to) a (Hearthfire compatible) mod that may fix this glitch with the wedding ceremony, or a workaround, I'd really appreciate it.


Greetz,

Milt

Umm...is that you actual load order? Because if it is, it's pretty much off. Run BOSS on it, it should sort it out and then try the marriage again, from a save prior to getting the quest.

I just got married a few days ago and all went fine.

I have no clue to be honest. When attempting to modify load order through the launcher, it always reverts to some odd listing. I'll try BOSS and see if it will make a difference

EDIT: Hmmm, most peculiar. BOSS states that it can't write to the plugins.txt file that's supposed to be here: "C:\Users\Miltiades\AppData\Local\Skyrim\plugins.txt". Yet when checking it, it doesn't have a read-only tag or anything. However, could it be that because I'm using a Dutch Win7 installation it simply can't find the proper path (C:\Gebruikers\Miltiades\AppData\Local\Skyrim\plugins.txt)?

Also, it seems the information in plugins.txt is outdated and show a host of old/deleted mods. Next to that I have a file called loadorder.txt which shows:

Skyrim.esm
Update.esm
Dawnguard.esm
HearthFires.esm
Dragonborn.esm
ApachiiHair.esm
HighResTexturePack01.esp
HighResTexturePack02.esp
HighResTexturePack03.esp
unofficial skyrim patch.esp
unofficial dawnguard patch.esp
unofficial hearthfire patch.esp
unofficial dragonborn patch.esp
unofficial high resolution patch.esp
ArmoredCircletsQuickFox.esp
the paarthurnax dilemma.esp
upgrade leveled items spell.esp
WATER.esp
morrowindimports.esp

As you can understand, I'm getting a little confused as to why BOSS can't write to plugins.txt, why plugins.txt (when opened) shows a list containing both active and deleted mods, and what the game does with the Loadorder.txt

EDIT2: Alright, after making a copy of my old plugins.txt, I transferred the information from loadorder.txt into it. I made sure to set it to read/write and launched BOSS. Now it came back with some dirty entries; but apparently *ONLY* in the official DLC's.

• Update.esm Active
  
  • Contains dirty edits: 73 ITM, 1 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25859 cleaning. A cleaning guide is available http://www.creationkit.com/TES5Edit_Cleaning_Guide_-_TES5Edit.
• Dawnguard.esm Active
  
  • Contains dirty edits: 607 ITM, 82 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25859 cleaning. A cleaning guide is available http://www.creationkit.com/TES5Edit_Cleaning_Guide_-_TES5Edit.
    
  • Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}
• HearthFires.esm Active
  
  • Contains dirty edits: 171 ITM, 11 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25859 cleaning. A cleaning guide is available http://www.creationkit.com/TES5Edit_Cleaning_Guide_-_TES5Edit.
• Dragonborn.esm Active
  
  • Contains dirty edits: 57 ITM, 8 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25859 cleaning. A cleaning guide is available http://www.creationkit.com/TES5Edit_Cleaning_Guide_-_TES5Edit.

Ah well, time to fire it up and see if I can get married. If so, I guess I'll lock my own thread

Update: even with the modifications and BOSS it seems that my marriage sequence is still broken. Maramal still stops right after my spouse-to-be states 'I do, now and forever'

Did you clean the Update & DLC esms? It's really easy.

So you got BOSS to work, yes? I never encountered that "can't write to the plugins.txt " error, so I can't really advise you on it.

Yes, you should grab http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25859 and clean the official plugins. There are tutorials on how to do it on the main page, both video and on the CreationKit wiki.

P.S. After BOSS is done sorting it opens a page showing you the Load Order. Does that take effect in the Skyrim Launcher too, when you open it?

Did you try with a save from before talking to Maramal at all about marriage? Or even on a new game? I know it might sound too much, but it's best to do it as to narrow it down.

Nope, didn't clean anything just yet as I'm a little hesitant in trying to clean an official esm. Also considering I had all the Unofficial Patches, I didn't want to break anything by accident.

Unless cleaning the Update and DLC's is harmless. Then I'd be very interested to learn how this can be done. I hope TES5Edit has a 'noob mode' for cleaning.


Yeah, I think it was because the entire Local was set to read-only I believe. Apparently that way it sets a block on all files, not just checks you can turn off.

I'll get TES5Edit and give it a go then. Hopefully I won't damage anything though

The list I get back from BOSS and the list I get through Plugins in the launcher are now identical as well.

As to trying it on a save prior to talking with Maramal, the only saves I have are ones where I already bought an amulet from him. But that was it. I didn't talk to anyone to agree for a marriage, nor did I talk to Maramal about hosting a wedding. All I did was get an amulet for 200g.

Alright, I cleaned the Update.esm and then all the official DLC's. I also doublechecked with BOSS to see if there were no more dirty edits and it found none.

So I raced back to Ysolda, put a bag over her head and ran off with her to this evil temple for the wedding; only to find out that Maramal still won't proceed beyond Ysolda's 'I do, now and forever'

Maybe she's just not that into you. <-- sorry for the useless comment.

But really, have you tried with someone else? And that "new game" recommendation? It might be worth a shot...
Was this you mod list from the beginning of this save session, or did you have other mods too?
You can also try and start a new game with only the unofficial patches, though what you have there in your mod list shouldn't affect you in this way.

I'm sorry I can't be of any further help, I don't know what else to suggest.

I did try it with another partner, but it locked up at the same spot.

I do recall having to remove a few mods because my versions were not compatible with the official DLC's. Most notably Mike Hanchos Breezehome Tweaks which caused a crash upon entering (due to Bethesda changing certain navmeshes I believe) and Scenic Carriages (due to crashes near Lakeview. But I messed something up there it seems because the original carriage drivers don't transport me at all anymore). I also recall deleting a Sabrecat mount or something (fun at the time, but not something I'd want permanently)

But I'll give it a try with a completely new game and see if it makes a difference. And don't be sorry; I really appreciate the help you've given me

I believe that something has messed up the script-sequence (either something through a mod or the original), especially because you reported getting married just fine. For me this was the first time I couldn't get married all of a sudden.

Also, is it normal your character gets forced into third-person and walks up to the altar? I can't remember if it always did that or if it's something that was added more recently by a patch or DLC.

Alright, I ran through with a new character and now Maramal proceeds normally. So because I still had all my mods active, I can only assume that there's something wrong with my savefile.

If my savegame is causing this, are there editors/cleaners which may be able to scan the file and track down modifications made by mods that are no longer in use but may still have entries embedded in the savefile?

Nope. At least, nothing yet. We've got some viewers partially implemented and some brute force approaches, but nothing really ready for prime time.

Strange issue with such a tiny list of mods, with no script heavy mods either. Maybe just try to go off doing some other things for a while then come back and see if it resolved itself later.

A shame. I'd love to have a savefile-scanner like TES5Edit that could scan for redundant or conflicting entries/variables.


Yeah, the only mod I had that could be considered script heavy was Scenic Carriages, but I don't see a connection that might lead to Maramal's wedding scripts to be affected when I removed it (it did cause some issues with the carriage drivers no longer taking me anywhere though).

I had a savefile that was completely borked by removing ScenicCarriages. Basically it broke the automatic dialog system - NPCs could no longer force you into talking to them. Quite a lot of quests (the marriage one included) rely on this mechanism to progress properly.

I'm afraid that you are going to have to say goodbye to that save and be very careful in future about what mods you un-install. At this time there is no 100% safe way to clean up a save file despite a couple of so called cleaning systems floating around claiming to be able to do it. If you use any of them you are playing russian roulette with your save.

Now that you mention it... Couriers and such come running up to me, but do not initiate their dialogue automatically. Although I had that issue in the past even with Scenic Carriages active and working and couldn't figure out why I always had to click on people manually when I knew they should force their dialogue on me automatically.

A shame though. I already managed to get myself up to level 25 with all the Hearthfire houses (one fully decorated) and lots of questing done...