These marriages are called proxy marriages, a legal arrangement that allows a couple to wed even in the absence of one or both spouses.
The procedure has been used infrequently in the United States.
It is increasingly being used in immigrant communities, where people are seeking to marry partners from their homelands without the expense of matchmaking trips abroad.
There are some concerns that it will facilitate marriage fraud.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/nyregion/internet-marriages-on-rise-in-some-immigrant-communities.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
