People who married two years ago and want out ask the same question: can this just be undone? Colorado's answer is no. A short marriage goes through the same petition, the same 91-day waiting period, the same financial disclosures, and the same decree as a marriage of thirty years. There is no shortcut for brevity.
What changes is the economics. Under three years there is no guideline maintenance term, courts lean hard toward putting each spouse back where he or she started, and the marital estate is often small. But "small" is not "nothing," appreciation on separate property is marital even in a two-year marriage, and the moment children, a jointly bought house, or a new business enter the picture, a short marriage becomes an ordinary divorce with all of its problems.
Same Process, Same Clock
C.R.S. § 14-10-106 requires that one spouse have been domiciled in Colorado for 91 days before filing and that 91 days pass after the respondent is served or joins the petition before a decree can enter. The automatic temporary injunction under C.R.S. § 14-10-107 takes effect on filing and service, restraining both spouses from transferring marital property, disturbing the peace, taking children out of state, or cancelling insurance. Mandatory disclosures and the Sworn Financial Statement under C.R.C.P. 16.2 are required however little there is to disclose.
A declaration of invalidity, what other states call an annulment, is a separate proceeding with specific grounds such as fraud going to the essence of the marriage, duress, or inability to consent. Regret is not on the list. For nearly every short marriage, dissolution is the route, and a couple with no children and no real property who agree on everything still gets the decree no sooner than the 91st day.
Restoring Premarital Positions
Colorado's property statute, C.R.S. § 14-10-113, sets apart each spouse's separate property and divides the marital property "in such proportions as the court deems just," considering each spouse's contribution, the value of the separate property set apart to each, the economic circumstances of each at the time of division, and any increase or decrease in separate property during the marriage. Property owned before the wedding, and property received by gift or inheritance, stays with the spouse who brought it.
In a short marriage those factors point in one direction. The marital estate is two years of paychecks, retirement contributions, and whatever they bought, and a court dividing it will usually aim to leave each spouse roughly where he or she stood at the wedding. The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed exactly that in a six-month marriage decades ago: each spouse kept the property brought in, and the husband paid a modest sum in lieu of alimony.
Title still does not control. A car bought during the marriage in one spouse's name is marital, and so are two years of 401(k) contributions and the growth on them. A spouse who paid off the other's premarital student loans from joint earnings has a contribution argument, not a refund. Restoration is a tendency, not a rule, and the numbers still have to be traced.
The Appreciation Trap Still Applies
This blog has covered Colorado's appreciation rule in depth, and a short marriage does not escape it. Under C.R.S. § 14-10-113(4), an asset acquired before the marriage is marital "to the extent that its present value exceeds its value at the time of the marriage." A $600,000 townhouse in Highlands Ranch owned by one spouse before the wedding is separate; if it is worth $700,000 at the decree two years later, $100,000 is marital and on the table. So is the growth in a $300,000 brokerage account that became $360,000.
The fights in short marriages are about two things. The first is the value on the wedding date, because the spouse claiming separate property has to prove it and a two-year-old online estimate is not evidence. The second is the split: a court dividing $100,000 of appreciation "equitably" weighs the other spouse's contribution, and a spouse who put nothing toward the mortgage, the upkeep, or the household for two years may receive far less than half. Equitable is not equal, and in a short marriage that distinction does the work. Property is valued at the decree or the property hearing under C.R.S. § 14-10-113(5), so a rising market between filing and trial adds to the marital share.
Maintenance and Prenups Under Three Years
Colorado's advisory guideline term begins at 36 months of marriage. Below that, C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(h) allows maintenance only "when, given the circumstances of the parties, the distribution of marital property is insufficient to achieve an equitable result," and the court must make findings explaining why. The threshold test still applies: the requesting spouse must lack sufficient property to meet reasonable needs and be unable to do so through appropriate employment.
In practice, two working adults who divorce after two years get no maintenance. The exception is the spouse who changed position for the marriage, such as one who left a job in another city, moved to Denver, and has not yet found comparable work. A court may bridge that gap for a few months, and Colorado appellate courts have affirmed small, short awards after brief marriages. Temporary maintenance during the case is not barred by a short marriage, but it will be measured against what the requesting spouse earned before the wedding.
Short marriages are disproportionately the ones with premarital agreements, and the agreement usually holds. The Colorado Marital Agreements Act governs agreements signed on or after July 1, 2014, and under C.R.S. § 14-2-309 a prenup is unenforceable only if the challenging spouse proves it was involuntary, that he or she lacked access to independent counsel, that it omitted the required notice of waiver of rights when unrepresented, or that there was no adequate financial disclosure. Two years is not long enough for circumstances to have changed in ways the agreement did not anticipate, which is the argument that undermines older prenups. A maintenance waiver remains unenforceable to the extent it is unconscionable at enforcement, but a spouse who was self-supporting two years ago will rarely meet that bar, and the agreement governs only what it addresses.
When a Short Marriage Is Not Simple
Length of marriage has nothing to do with the issues that take the most time. A child born fourteen months into the marriage requires a full parenting plan, decision-making allocation, and child support under Colorado's 2026 guidelines, exactly as in a long marriage. Those are the cases that get fought hardest, and marriage length is irrelevant to every one of them. Three other situations turn a short case into a real one:
- A home bought together. If one spouse's separate savings funded the down payment and the house was titled jointly, the court has to decide whether the contribution was a gift to the marriage or a traceable separate interest, and the answer depends on the evidence of intent.
- A business started during the marriage. It is marital regardless of whose name is on the filing, it has to be valued, and if it was built on a premarital company, the growth is marital appreciation.
- A relationship that predates the wedding. If the couple lived together for five years first, one spouse may claim a common law marriage began earlier under Hogsett v. Neale (Colo. 2021). If that claim succeeds, the "two-year marriage" becomes a seven-year one, with a guideline maintenance term and five more years of marital appreciation.
That last point is the one people never see coming. In Colorado, the length of the marriage is a fact to be proven, not a date on a certificate, and a short marriage after a long cohabitation can be the most contested case of all.
Talk to a Denver Divorce Attorney About a Short Marriage
Aaron Herzberg is a divorce attorney in Greenwood Village, Colorado, serving Denver and the Front Range, with more than 30 years of trial experience and a practice focused on divorce, custody, and financially complex family law. A short marriage is often a fast case, but date-of-marriage values, the prenup, and any question about when the marriage really began need to be pinned down before filing. A first meeting is a paid consultation, not a free call and not a sales pitch.
Read the full guide on DenverDivorce.com: Property Division in Colorado.
Educational information only, not legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.
