I too have a situation with two weddings for the same couple one in January 1876 and the second in June 1877. I also have a similar military connection with the groom being a gunner in the artillery and possibly on leave from his Hampshire base when he married first.The first marriage was the family affair in the bride's home district and the second a register office ceremony near the groom's barracks. (So not the case that the first marriage was anything like an impulsive or secret thing that was "normalised" in front of the family later. And there's no evidence that they "had" to get married in the first instance. My solution to the puzzle is that it may have been the case that men in the army couldn't marry without permission and that in order to bring his wife home to live in married quarters he had to go through another ceremony to produce a marriage certificate after he had been granted formal permission. This is only a guess, and perhaps some of the military experts o! n this list can enlighten us further. If we have any marriage experts reading this, I've always been intrigued by the legality of this situation. Which is the legal marriage - the first or the second? Does the second invalidate the first one or would the second marriage (presumeably involving false declarations of bachelorhood/spinsterdom) be illegal. Did my relatives commit a crime the second time around and could they have been prosecuted? I hope that's not the case. Of course it might just be that they loved each other so much and had such a good time on the first day that they decided to do it again (- and get a second set of wedding gifts?!)