In the second place, the nation-state has only fairly recently inserted itself into the marriage business. Before about 150 years or so ago, governments were not at all involved in defining or regulating marriage, issuing licenses and so forth. Before that, marriage was primarily contracted by and authenticated by families. If there was any record of the fact that a marriage had occurred, the place to go see it would have been the parish church. The so-called "marriage contract" was not a legal idea or document, but an informal arrangement guaranteed by the families of the parties thereto and the wider community. From a healthy "cultural anthropologist's" point of view, this tends to beg the question of what a "government" is, I think. Also, if the 150 years is true, it is true in Western civilizations struggling to come out from ecclesiastical management. (BTW, isn't the tradtion of marriage by the captain of a ship older than 150 years? Captains aren't generally recognized as elders in the church, by default.) ;-)
Also, see the Western world pre ecclesiastical reign. Rome, for instance.