No. In the Catholic Church marriage is a sacrament. Every sacrament has what is known as form and matter.
The form is the words that are used during the celebration of the sacrament. In Baptism, for instance, the form is I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In Marriage the form is the vow I, ___, take you, ___, to be my lawfully wedded wife/husband. To have and to hold from this day forward for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.
The matter is the physical element that symbolizes what the sacrament does. In Baptism, the matter is the water that washes away sin and the Chrism Oil that conforms us to Christ. In Marriage, the matter is the gift of body of the man and the gift of the body of the woman given freely and completely to each other in sexual union. Each time husband and wife engage in sexual intercourse, they ratify the vow they made at the Altar before God and his community of believers.
