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Marriage By Religion Or Law?

Does your Religion observe civil law first in marriage or the blessing of it being sanctioned by the Religious Organization? In other words, how does your Religious Belief system dictate marriage - that it can be set apart by the clergy and then the law may be approached as a matter of formality or the other way around?

The reasoning behind this is based on the meaning of establishing marriage in Religion, is it based on local laws first or the Religion first? If the Religion first then why do Religious groups 'give-in' to the law or 'bow' before the law in controlling marriage? For instance, a muslim may wish to have more than one wife, but the law does not sanction it, so he approaches the Imam who may (depending on their regard for local laws) still set him apart with a second or third wife as they are regarded married by the Religion.

Note: I do not want a political angle here, I want discussion based on Religion and why it allows the State to control it's uniting of two or three people.

Law Religion Marriage

This is a really good question. My religion (LDS) puts the legal version BEFORE the religious version. ONLY marriage that has legal sanction is allowed in any way. For example, there are some countries where legal sanction is not required, and isn't even normal. However, even within those countries, the LDS Church requires married couples to have a "legal" marriage before the religious marriage can be performed. What gets interesting is that the Church requires people who convert to get that same "legal" marriage.