Another way of thinking about it is that a wedding itself is a public commitment you’re making in front of witnesses (so in theory harder to back out of — not a

Another way of thinking about it is that a wedding itself is a public commitment you’re making in front of witnesses (so in theory harder to back out of — not a bad idea as it provides some hysteresis to overcome transient conflicts). Meanwhile the government is simply providing some infrastructure as a service to people who want to make such commitments.