There's nothing wrong with being married in the rectory. It would be much better if there were more quiet ceremonies of that type today instead of the disgusting extravaganzas where obscene amounts of money are spent while everyone knows that the bride and groom have been sleeping together for the past few years. Starting your marriage with simplicity and humility and with a word of warning sounds like a reasonably good program. Looks like it worked in the case of your parents. The contrast between the blatant hypocrisy of most modern marriages with the humility and sincerity of your parents' marriage is very striking and edifying.
Max, you know very well that the Church's attitude toward mixed marriages has changed, significantly. That's for the better.
The new catechism still discourages mixed marriages. And while it's true that the leniency of dispensations has increased, I do not believe that it is a good thing by any means. I have observed far too often, including in my own family, the truth of Pope Pius' statement that mixed marriages lead to indifferentism which leads quickly to a loss of faith for the children.
Ironically, mixed marriages were less of a danger back in the days when they were discouraged so strongly. Catholics clung to their faith with a bulldog grip and were likely to convert their spouses. Today the danger of indifferentism is many orders of magnitude greater.
It was forced on them. They wanted a Church marriage, but the old pastor said no.
My dad converted, but not until he got away from that parish. He resented the hell out of what he always saw as a humiliation.."The Church treated me like a second-class citizen."
Ironically, six years after he converted, an assistant pastor at another Church in 1959 did, indeed, call him a second-class Catholic because he was a convert.
Dad never darkened the door of a Church again, until he made his final confession and went to Mass a couple of times before he died.
Lots of people were hurt by an Arrogant Church.
The Church should be humble; it has every reason to be.