Getting Married (legally)

My fiance and I looked it over, and decided two weeks ago that we needed to sign a certificate saying we were married. I need to get him on the lease, and I need health insurance, so I signed piece of paper by the state is what we need to achieve both ends.
We are still going to have a big ceremony in September, so I didn't think that this was that big of deal. I mean, our relationship isn't going to change one iota, so to me this was like akin to playing word games with the government.
Well, we were supposed to be married yesterday, but our good "reverend" (PE, who got himself ordained online in the church of secular humanism) decided he needed to get really, really sick. So, now we have to wait another week, for PE to get better and so his friend R can come up for the weekend to witness.
Our parents were oddly weird about this arrangement. They both came to see the logic in it, but are all upset that they won't be here to see it. I'm like "we're signing a piece of paper and mailing it off, what is there to see?" My friends are also all excited about this, for some odd reason, one they refuse to speak.
Like my friend B, who said that this will be a major change. I said "What change? We're already living together, we slept together years ago, and we're not even getting the social recognition, just the legal ones". He said I was missing the point.
But the thing is, I was getting weirdly excited for this whole marriage thing. And I'm not even entirely sure why. I don't need a piece of paper to know I want to be together forever with my love. I also find it ironic that marriage is supposed to be about me and my love, and so far has more to do with people who aren't us.