Registering a wedding: First the ceremony - THEN 'signing the papers'

Here's a lovely couple from a small wedding in Trinity Bellwoods.  We're 'signing the papers', which means signing the Marriage License, Record of Solemnization and the Marriage Register, and then our 2 witnesses will sit down and sign after us, to show they were there and heard the couple.
But note, we sign papers only AFTER we have a simple spoken wedding ceremony, as required by the Marriage Act of Ontario.
You cannot just 'sign the papers' to have a legal wedding.  The actual signing of documents is attesting that you have held a spoken marriage ceremony in front of 2 legal witnesses, under the jurisdiction of a legally registered officiant.The 2 witnesses sign the 'papers' to swear that they WITNESSED (saw and heard) the legal ceremony;  where you both said out loud that you accept each other as your legal spouse, in the words required by the Marriage Act of Ontario.
And then you sit down and sign!!  The ceremony can be brief, simple, and short.  But you must have qa legal wedding ceremony to be legally married.