Your religion, cult, or social club, or you and your dog can have whatever marriage ceremony you choose, it just doesn't have to be recognized outside of your group and in the law.
Thomas Jefferson who of course obtained a marriage license and as an attorney sometimes dealt in divorce law, felt that it was a negative thing when the Roman empire became so weak in the 5th century that the then all powerful Roman Catholic church took over marriage law in the areas that they could, of course in America there is no one Mosque or religion to decide for the people what marriage is and to force the military to accept it as legal.
We agree completely here. That is why, rather than pervert the religious sacrament of marriage to comport with government concerns on control, I suggest an alternative legal term of art "Civil Union" whereby government defines, and controls the meaning. For most people, marriage would also be a civil union, but by having a separate term, there would not have to be a government decision on which marriages were, or were not in line with the current legal definition of civil union.
The important part, marriage, would be outside of government control.
The royal family of the Ottoman empire seemed able to reproduce without marriage.
That is the counter example to ‘all societies have marriage’ argument.