That there should be witnesses of marriage is clear enough from what has already been stated. The Holy Qur’ān requires witnesses even for ordinary contracts and business transactions (2:282), and marriage is a contract of the highest importance, a contract affecting the lives of two persons to an extent to which no other contract affects them. It further requires witnesses even in the case of the dissolution of marriage by divorce (65:2). The Ḥanafī law rightly lays special stress on this point, so that marriage is not valid if at least two witnesses are not there (H.I, p. 286). To procure the best testimony, and one free from doubt of all kinds, it is quite in accordance with the law of Islām that all marriages should be registered.
After nikāḥ is over, the bride is conducted to the husband’s house, and this is followed by the marriage-feast called walīmah. This feast is another step in the publicity of the marriage, and hence the Holy Prophet laid stress on it. It is related of ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn ‘Auf that the Holy Prophet, on being told of his marriage, prayed for him and told him to arrange for a feast though there be only one goat to feed the guests (Bu. 34:1; 67:7, 57). On the occasion of his own marriage with Ṣafīyyah, when returning from Khaibar, he gave a feast in which every one was required to bring his food with him (Bu. 8:12). Of course this was on a journey, but at the same time it shows the great importance given to the marriage-feast. He also invited his friends to a walīmah feast on the occasion of his marriage with Zainab, which is said to have been the most sumptuous of all his walīmah feasts, and yet he slaughtered only one goat (M. 16:15). Bukhārī devoted several chapters to walīmah in particular, in addition to numerous stray references.28
28 I quote a few headings: “The walīmah is necessary” (Bu. 67:68); “The walīmah (is necessary) though there be only one goat to feed the guests” (Bu. 67:69); “He who entertains in walīmah with less than a goat” (Bu. 67:71); “It is necessary to accept an invitation to walīmah” (Bu. 67:72).