You list the exorbitant cost of a church wedding as one of the impediments to marriage among cohabiting couples (“Marriage and the real world”, leader, 15 March). This may be so in denominations where central authority requires couples to pay a statutory fee but it is not true in the Catholic Church. A couple may be invited to make a donation, but in practice it is possible for any Catholic to be married in church and pay nothing more than the registration fees. Sadly, when people say they cannot afford a church wedding what they usually mean is the massive expense of the reception, clothes, photographers and so on. How can we teach that none of these things will guarantee a lifelong happy marriage? Couples who married 50 or 60 years ago and are still together often testify to