As I always announce when I’m stealing an anecdote for my own purposes, you may infer my reasons for posting an otherwise-contentless response.
While I was in middle and high school, my dad had an emotionally abusive live-in girlfriend who also had some hard-core jealousy issues. As an example of her level of crazy, when I was eleven my dad and I went to a Father-Daughter Dance run by the Girl Scouts. She warned him not to dance with any of my friends. My friends were also eleven and my dad was in his mid-forties. That was at the beginning of their relationship. It only got worse.
When I was fifteen, I let him know that if they were ever planning on getting married, I would do everything in my power to stop the marriage because I didn’t think it would be fair to me or to him. Had it come to standing up mid-ceremony (provided I was invited to the ceremony), I probably would have. Luckily, my dad is now married to a different woman who is not bat-shit insane.
Had the line been used at one of my sisters’ wedding, I think another one of my sisters would have said something. The sister who would have spoken up was actually the maid of honor and almost backed out of the position on the day of the wedding because the reality of the situation (that the bride was really going through with marrying the groom) finally hit her. That was an interesting day. I listened for the line in though and it was not used. That sister is still married to the same guy and rarely talks to the sister who would have spoken up.
As a side note, writing this out made me worry a bit about the amount of crazy in my family.
Crying children? A lost ring? Thunderstorm? Earthquake? Jeez, some people just can’t take a hint…
Me? No. In fact, I haven’t seen them since. They’re doing their own thing. We didn’t have that much in common in the first place, and I get the feeling that the groom didn’t like me much. (I wonder why? 
)
When we were married, we were told that this line came from the olden days when there weren’t national records and instant communication and such, and it was basically a polite way of asking “does anyone know of either one of these people is married in another state or something?”
We were given the option of leaving it in for tradition’s sake or omitting it from the service. We chose to omit it.
It’s certainly standard in the Church of England service. I think it dates back to the days when most people married someone from the same village or maybe the next one over, so it was a convenient way of establishing someone was legally free to marry (old enough, not already married etc) since it would be hard to conceal it in those circumstances. I think this is historically why there are more stringent requirements to marry in a parish that isnt’ yours - in those days travelling a bit of distance could have allowed someone to conceal something like that.
At our wedding rehearsal, our priest (with I would guess at least 30 years of experience) said that no-one had ever stopped a wedding to say it, but he had once been written a letter to say that a weddign wasn’t legal. Basically girl A eloped with boy B and went to Gretna Green (UK equivalent of Las Vegas for quickie weddings). However they’d not sorted out the right paperwork and couldn’t get legally married. When they came back they were too embarrassed to say so, so went through with a church blessing anyway. Later they split up and girl A got engaged to boy C and was due to marry him. The grandmother of boy B heard about it and wrote to the priest to say that she wasn’t free to marry as she’d been married before (not true, but since grandma had been to her “wedding” you can see why she was confused!).
I think he was telling us to reassure us that it was highly unlikely (though it wasn’t something either of us had worried about). He said if it did happen he would take the person off to one side quietly and try to determine if it was an actual legal issue while causing as little fuss as possible.
You really didn’t need to tell us anything else to let us know this wedding was going to go awry.
Iasked my (Catholic) pastor once if anyone had ever responded to that question. He said most priests haven’t bothered to ask that question in years, and that he’d never heard of anyone actually raising an objection.
It happens all the time in sitcoms and romantic movies, though.
Best wedding story ever.
It wasn’t asked at my wedding, but I like what was said.
The minister, addressing us newlyweds, said “If either of you knows anything which would alienate your union, let it now be left behind to the mercy of God”
Then, addressing the congregation, he said “If any of you would do anything to divide their heart and soul from one another, let him forget it from this hour, for to do so would imperil a creation that God has made, and has His blessing.”
I’ve never had the situation in the OP happen.
OTOH, for my sister’s third wedding, I wanted to have a drum kit set up so I could do rimshots during the vows.
“Do you promise to stay in sickness and in health?” “I sure do!” BADUMP-CHEE!
“Till death do you part?” “Of course!” BADOO-DO-BOP-CHEE!
Nothing did.