option 3, why is "marriage" important anyway? Other than for legal reasons, Folks should just be able to feel they are a couple or not, if they so desire.

I recently went to my nephew's civil wedding in Ireland. Even the Catholic guests were glad for the civil ceremony as traditional Catholic weddings can last for hours and waste too much good drinking time. It was held in a golf/country club, it was a very beautiful ceremony, plus it was just a short walk from the wedding to the reception area.
If you are going to have a big wedding? Then unless the bride and groom belong to the same church which they both attend regularly. A church wedding makes no sense. Firstly you have to coordinate the times/dates of the church and reception. Deal with any religious differences of the guests (yes there are some religions like Scottish Presbyterians that would excommunicate any member that stepped into a Catholic church). Then either bus or otherwise transport your guests to the reception.
The past 2 weddings I have attended have both taken place in country clubs. Both were extremely well organised. And most importantly none of us oldies had to potentially compromise our later dance moves by f@cking kneeling on a cold stone floor!

Damn - isn't 'No wedding, just shag like rabbits' an option?

Neither

I think this is probably a good time to point out that marriage is the leading cause of divorce!!
How many divorced folks do you know that didn’t get married first!?!!‍

I didn't vote because I prefer whatever the celebrants prefer. My granddaughter recently became legally joined with her partner of 6 years on Halloween. She wanted to make it fun so she had a gorgeous black lace dress and I brought her a bridal bouquet. I was lucky to be one of the few attendees. No vows were exchanged and her brother got a certificate to allow him to sign the paperwork to make the transaction legal.

She told me the marriage was taking place because they had decided to bring a child into the world next year. She isn't pregnant yet but I hope her pregnancy occurs as planned and they live happily ever after.

Here's a picture of the wedding party.

No wedding. Civil contract outlining all financial responsibilities of both parties and disposition of assets in case of death or divorce.

Churches should have no legal standing in marriage. The legal aspects like survivorship, care of children and division of assets are tort law. Who and how you fuck is no ones business but ones conscience.

Traditional and Civil, are not exclusive.

If by traditional you mean Christian Religious, then say so, it is a fairly new tradition, far less old than the marriage customs of some cultures, or even some of the borrowed customs it incorporates. So it hardly counts as much more traditional than civil, which in the west goes back to the Roman Republic, three centuries before Christ.

When marriage became a requirement for my life partner to come and live in Bermuda with me for 8 years on several large construction projects that I was building at the time, we said why not and I had the landscaper on a previous hotel project who was also an excommunicated priest who left the priesthood for love do the ceremony. The ceremony was held at a hotel that I had built a few years earlier and we invited friends and a few family to join us in a celebration of our love and the party that followed.
Ironically, Bermuda has a stict policy about marriage for foreign workers to bring their partners to Bermuda but Father's Day is also the most confusing holiday on the island of Bermuda. So Whatever.

Traditional meaning a wedding at the church or a wedding performed by a clergyman. I don't care much for the church or so called priests and pastors. A piece of paper means nothing, whether it's a courthouse wedding or a church wedding. If two consenting adults want to be together then be together. No permission necessary either from the government or the church. This is my view.

I've done both. Neither is a guarantee of success.
Personally, I believe marriage is an unnecessary, archaic, and useless social construct. At it's core, it's a legal contract. Much easier to get into than out of.

You forgot option 3…..

Neither. Weddings are overrated.

Courthouse wedding, street clothes & a bouquet for the bride, bouttoniers, license, tip for the officiant, maybe $300.
Get the Mothers involved, $20,000 to bankruptcy........the dress alone could go 5 figures.

When we got married we just went to the marriage licensed bureau and got our license and then went to the justice of the peace with my brother and his wife as witnesses and that was that tada we were married.
Sweet and simple, and the only expenses was the license and the justice of the peace total cost was $50.00.

I wanted to vote for a Traditional Wedding, but I got to the page with an error.

Ignored... married for 20 years... divorced for 22 years.... NEVER AGAIN.

I don't care, so I'd let my spouse choose.

None.

No wedding. If it actually came to that my vote would likely be small traditional but I'd be cool with civil too.

I didn't vote and have no real interest in getting married again. The one time I was married was in 1999, at a Unitarian church with two Unitarian ministers officiating, one from her church and one from mine. My only LTR, because here in Iowa, as a young man who didn't want to have kids or be a stepparent, that pretty well disqualified me from marriage or an LTR, since young women here seem to all have kids on the brain, at least then, if not even at my current age. We were both Unitarians who were active with our neighboring churches. That was when I was 41, working poor and had nothing to really lose in a divorce. Now I am 64, financially secure, and comfortably retired, so no way I am getting married without an airtight prenup, since I can't afford to lose half what I have, with a heart condition and the possibility of a stroke from it down the line, costing me expensive care for possibly the rest of my life.

So most likely if I find a partner, she needs to have her own money and place to live, and I will keep mine. What my late wife, in her community college course on Courtship, Marriage, and Family, called "Pension Pals", people who are a couple, but remain unmarried for mutual financial advantages... Even with a prenup and such, I would not get married again unless the woman really insisted on it.

None of the above.

I chose civil but had traditional because it was cheaper . Although I can remember stood at the altar and hearing study like: you shall obey your husband and give unto him your body when he wants it…..guessing the now ex wife didn’t hear that part!

Also the pastor said the kissing the bride wasn’t part of the Bible version of marriage so we never had it