mitkint

Actually, the Mitzvah of P’ru U’r’vu is on the man only, not on the lady, because childbirth puts the woman in a life threatening situation, and the Torah does not command the woman to play with her life. However, most women are naturally blessed with the mothering instinct, where they want to have children, over and over again, regardless of the pain and potentially life threatening situation it puts them in. Therefore, procreation is not a requirement of marriage, rather, as mentioned before, a natural and flowing outcome of two people who want to create a life together, and create new life together. For a man, it is a mitzvah, and generally, this can only be done halachically today through marriage (as the idea of a pelegesh does not exist today and I’m not sure, but I would imagine that a child out of wedlock has serious halachic ramifications). So, I would think that while getting married is not a mitzvah in and of itself, meaning one can stay single their whole life, to fully complete your life, to bring children into the world and fulfill P’ru U’r’vu (for men, nowdays) one would have to get married. And therefore, one has to do it the right way, with Chupa and Kedushin. Oomis, you went to a wedding. There were brachos made. Doesn’t make it a requirement to do it to begin with. Hafrashas Challah is a mitzvah. I don’t do it, fine. I bake challah, and I make a certain amount of dough, I have to make a bracha on it.