Could couples in the 1800s have 2 weddings in 2 different places?

[Cattus]

I have found records of 2 weddings for my 4 times great grandparents: April 1875 in their home village in Somerset and May 1875 in Bristol where they moved to.
I can’t imagine it’s 2 separate couples because of the exact names. Could they have had a blessing at home and a marriage the next month, or vice versa? What could explain the 2 records?

Could they have lost their marriage lines and had to get married again to “prove” it? I know it was very important to be married, and landlords wouldn’t rent to unmarried couples (the scandal!) but just a guess.

Odd, maybe they lost their first cert and the second was dated wrong?

Is one of them a civil registration birth index record and the other an actual marriage certificate? Or banns ?

Are you looking at the original of each record? It sounds like the earlier date is the banns record and the one a month later is the actual wedding. Not sure how you're viewing the records, but I know the banns and wedding records on ancestry.co.uk look identical until you examine the original image.

Our banns were read in our home parish but we were married in a church in the village where I grew up; I assume the same thing happened in the olden days too

Thanks for replies. Not sure Thebold. The BRistol one is from a public record I found on My Heritage. The Somerset one I have got 2nd hand from a relative who’s on Ancestry. I will look at the records again.

So most likely then that I should record the 2nd one as the wedding?

I will have a look again later and report back.

If you don't have an ancestry profile I'd be happy to check it out for you if you PM me the details. I have nothing better to do and love this stuff.

It used to be that if one of a couple was Roman Catholic and one wasn't and they got married in a Church of England church, the Catholic Church would disapprove and might not recognize the marriage. So couples would marry in both churches.

The Church of England wedding would be the registered marriage, as Church of England weddings don't need a separate registrar, wheras Catholic ones do.

Could this be the case?

Thanks all for really useful info. Idlenook I will pm you as I don’t have full ancestry access. Thanks for the offer.