It does not make a difference. Another friend however insists that the ceremony is vital for the marriage to be legitimate. Ceremonies form an important part in helping us transition from one stage of life to the next. Marriage marks the dividing point between singleness and marriage. Graduation marks the dividing point between being a student and being an adult.
Birthday parties mark the division between being young and being older.
Funerals mark our transition from our life with someone to our life without them. We often mark these times of changing from one stage of our life to another with signs symbols and ceremonies. Finally they cried out to God and He delivered them out of Egypt and brought them to the shore of the Red Sea. And so they went through the Red Sea, with all their old life behind them and their new life before them. They came out and the gap closed in, there was no return by that route.