I'd be lying if I were to claim that it had nothing to do with access to affordable health care for my wife. Add to that access to affordable health care for an (at that time) unconceived child that we wished to have, and for the pregnancy that would be associated with such a child.

More than that, it was a public declaration of our commitment to make our lives together. That meant something to us, to our families, and to the larger community.

My hat's off to Germany, where a civil ceremony is officially required and solely sufficient. Have whatever church ceremony you like (or not), believe what you want about it, but the civil ceremony is what makes for marriage in the eyes of the state. If marriage is to have an official standing, then I think that's not a bad way to go about it.

As benighted a place as some might believe it to be, my hat's off to Florida, too, to the extent that one can be married by a notary public. We were.