For Martel and I, it was the only way that anyone else we knew would understand what was going on between us. Our famlies are both very religous, and marriage being a religous thing (sometimes) the only way they'd "get" us living together was if we were legally married.
Why get legally married? Why does it exist? Well, there can be plenty of reasons for that... I don't think any one of them is right. Marriage, the committment part at least, is something private-
very private. Having a ceremony is a way to celebrate that with your friends and family (although it's easy to get out of hand). It's like a birthday party but it only happens once (or twice or three times) in your life, so it's a bigger deal. The ceremony is just a celebration, and all the minister and vows and "you may now kiss the bride" I guess is just a way to prolong the celebration and try to come up with something that you can do in front of other people that will show your committment (something that can only really be understood by the bride and groom) to everyone else.
Or, that's one way it can be. Martel and I eloped- got married at the courthouse with two people we didn't know as witnessess, in the law library on the top floor. I think we were next to a copier. It was still a special day, because for us it was the day we could say that no one could deny our love or our committment to each other because we had it on paper. To us it was real, making it official was a way to make it real to everyone else
