@jym626 , Catholic rules don’t matter to a non-Catholic. If you’re not compliant with their rules, you’re not married in their view, but why should this matter? You are still married in the eyes of the law.
And even though in the US, a religious ceremony counts, it’s not actually the ceremony that makes the couple legally married , it’s the signing of the marriage license in the presence of witnesses. The night before our wedding, our clergyman had us sign the paper and then jokingly said, “Technically, you’re legally married, so if you wanted to run off now, your marriage would be valid.” He had all of his couples sign the document at the rehearsal because early in his career, he’d had a couple neglect to sign it, and even though they had the ceremony, their marriage wasn’t legal until they returned to sign after their honeymoon.