Update: last Saturday, I attended a friend’s wedding, and the officiant was that very same priest, the ONLY one I’ve ever heard ask that question (that would have been around 1994).
THIS time, he didn’t ask it.
So, even the one clergyman I’d heard say “Speak now or forever hold your peace” has given that up.
He’s getting better at peace-holding !!
Or that one obstreperous congregant has moved away.
What community would drive away an obstetrician ?
20, 25 years ago, my oldest brother claimed to me that he’d raised a wedding-ceremony objection. I write “claimed” because I didn’t witness it myself and found the story difficult to believe. But he says that he and several of the bride’s friends felt the groom was likely to become an abusive husband, so they got together and agreed to all stand up at the ceremony, one at a time, and raise their objection. He claimed further that they succeeded in dissauding the bride, and were not, miraculously, punched in the throat for being jackholes.
In England you are not married in either a civil or a religious ceremony until you and the witnesses sign the register. Note that you cannot get married without two witnesses.
On the point about Banns - In the days before instant communication, it was important to give people an opportunity to ‘object’ to a proposed marriage if there was some legal impediment. The banns were, and still are, read out thee times, on successive Sundays, in the parish (or both parish) churches where the couple live. It is usual for them to attend at least one of the readings.
It is possible, by payment of a fee, to buy a licence and avoid the need for the delay.
That’s not correct. The Marriage Act 1949 requires that a marriage be conducted in the presence of two witnesses, but it doesn’t require that the ceremony include any signing of any papers or registers. Instead, it says that when a marriage has been celebrated various people have an obligation to sign the register - meaning that the obligation only arises if a marriage has in fact happened. The couple are not married because they have signed the register; rather, they are obliged to sign the register because they are married. The Act also lists various circumstances in which a marriage will be void; failure to sign the register is not one of those circumstances. Failure to comply with the registration requirements is an offence, but it doesn’t invalidate the marriage.
And you can never tell who might drop by for an English wedding: Queen's wedding visit at Manchester Town Hall 'the best present' - BBC News
The marriage license has largely made the phrase obsolete. Weddings used to be held on the front steps of the church, facing the public square, so that anyone with knowledge of a previous marriage or other impediment could step forward. While there could still be invitees, anyone could still witness the wedding vows.
This was in the days when someone could run away from a marriage to a nearby village, and get married again. The marriage banns would be sent to nearby villages to alert abandoned spouses that an attempt at bigamy was being made. They could then send their objections if need be.
With public records of marriages nearly universally accessible to town clerks, the need to send banns has generally been deprecated. Someone could still illegally remarry, under an alias for instance, but it slightly more difficult.
One who had been acting abdominally at weddings.
And, in fact, this is another condition that persists in English law. Officially recognised weddings and civil partnership ceremonies can only be held in premises approved for them and one of the conditions for approval is that “Public access to any proceedings in approved premises must be permitted without charge.”
To clarify what bob++ said, wedding licenses are required in any case, and it doesn’t remove the need for any delay in having the ceremony. You need to get your license then wait 15 days before the ceremony. During the 15 days your application is displayed publicly at the register office, which I guess is the non-church way of reading the banns. Anyone can raise an objection then, or during the ceremony itself as discussed.
Here’s SNL’s take on wedding objections: Wedding Objections - Saturday Night Live - YouTube