The simplest medieval wedding was the informal private marriage, but it was not recommended. All that was truly required was that the couple must say to each other “I take you as my wife” and “I take you as my husband” with some witnesses present. A few men found themselves married without realizing it—but this was a dangerous way of proceeding, especially for the girl. It would be all too easy to repudiate a marriage like this. However, if witnesses vouched for its having happened in their hearing, courts upheld even a marriage like that.
The safe way was to have a public wedding immediately after the proclamation of the banns for two Sundays. (In fact — hold it on Monday, in case hostile witnesses might turn up on Tuesday.) The usual wedding venue was the church’s outdoor front steps. Churches were generally built in a central location for the population. Even small, ancient buildings that seem lost now were once near a crossroads or village settlement. In towns, churches often fronted the market square. No other place could compare in public visibility.
Wealthy families might well pay for a private wedding Mass after the ceremony, or poorer families might schedule the ceremony for just before a regularly-scheduled Mass, but the ceremony itself still took place outside on the steps. Big churches had sheltered porches, since the doors tended to be built into a series of weight-bearing arches. The intentional witnesses to the ceremony could crowd onto the lower stairs or stand in the street, and every passer-by became an accidental witness.
The bride wore her best dress, and if she could, it was a new dress made for the occasion. It was never white; that was a much later fashion. Color implied wealth, so her dress was more likely to be red, blue or green; if she was in a wealthy Italian family, it was “cloth of gold.” In Italy, where wedding display came to mean a great deal, the dress might even be rented. But for the rest of Europe and most people, the dress was simply the bride’s most presentable garment. If she married in winter, clearly she needed a warm cloak, fur-trimmed if possible. The groom, likewise, was dressed in his best clothes for the weather.
They met by appointment at the church, at noon or at the third hour, or in later centuries, they might even meet by an appointed clock time. All through the 1300s, towns were installing mechanical clocks, beginning with the big cities like Paris, Milan and Strasbourg. By 1400, at least half of medieval brides could choose to marry by a numbered clock hour.