If if was good enough for you - why are you changing it for us?
Actually, I was married in Turkey (to another American btw).
The religious sacrament is completely separated from the state procedure (for the state procedure, we went into a magistrate's office and signed some papers and got the license).
And, btw, that's the way anybody who was stationed in Turkey got married. American, Brit, or otherwise.
It seems to have worked well for my wife and myself for the past 24 years.
Ahh, ok. Turkey has some bad historical precedent with that under Ataturk and from long ago.
It’s an important bulwark of the Faith to keep this connection between the Church and the sacraments with the state. Separation between Church and state never covered this, nor was it intended to mean this.