Even a contract is not simply just one thing.

 Bless you, bless you, Kirsten, for following up on my doubts about whether marriage is properly, legally speaking, a "contract".
So fun!

"Is Marriage a Legal Contract":
volokh.com/2012/05/20/is-marriage-a-legal-contract

"Marriage is a contract, and has long been described as a contract, but it’s a very peculiar kind of contract that has its own special legal rules. To ask whether marriage is “technically” a contract doesn’t make much sense, because it presupposes a single unique meaning for the term 'contract.'"

Thank you for answering my question.
BUT, I had said it's a contract with the state,  and I think that's wrong.
It's a contract between two people, (partly) enforceable by the state. (The state can't enforce a promise to love, but it can [try to] enforce child support.)

But my point is the same, anyway---people often don't realize what they're getting into, legally.
And this lawyer's comment to the linked post above makes that point:

That you can enter into that contract without having the foggiest idea of its terms has always struck me as odd (I've been practicing family law for 33 years, I'm married to a judge, who's also a (former) certified specialist, and I have a PRETTY good idea of what's in the contract)
but that fact has at least brought me clients....