7. Ceremonies for a Hindu marriage.—(1) A Hindu marriage may be solemnized in accordance with the customary rites and ceremonies of either party thereto. (2) Where such rites and ceremonies include the Saptapadi (that is, the taking of seven steps by the bridegroom and the bride jointly  before the sacred fire), the marriage becomes complete and binding when the seventh step is taken.

The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. Act No. 25 of 1955, Government of India, 18 May 1955.
2. The Grihya‑Sûtras: Rules of Vedic Domestic Ceremonies. Translated by Hermann Oldenberg, Part II, edited by F. Max Müller, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 30, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1892. 
   • (He continues thus,) ‘This am I, that art thou; that art thou, this am I ; the heaven I, the earth thou; Rik art thou, the Saman I. So be thou devoted to me. ‘Well! Let us here marry. Let us beget off-spring. Let us acquire many sons who may reach old age’ (Sankhayana-Grhiya-Sutra 1.13.4).
   • ‘For sap with one step, for juice with two steps, for the prospering of wealth with three steps, for comfort with four steps, for cattle with five steps, for the seasons with six steps. Friend be with seven steps’ (Sankhayana-Grhiya-Sutra 1.14.6).
3. Steinsaltz, Adin. The William Davidson Talmud. Koren Publishers Jerusalem.
   • The sixth blessing is: Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who has created joy and gladness, groom and bride, delight, exultation, happiness, jubilation, love and brotherhood, and peace and friendship. Soon, Lord our God, may there be heard in the cities of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the sound of the groom and the sound of the bride, the joyous sound of grooms from their wedding canopy and of young people from their feast of song (see Jeremiah 33:11). Blessed are You, Lord, Who makes the groom rejoice with the bride. Together with the blessing over the wine, these are the seven wedding blessings.
4. The Holy Bible, 1611 Edition: King James Version. Hendrickson, 2011.
   • This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband (Ephesians 5:32-33).
5. The Message of the Qurʼan. Book Foundation, 2003.
   • And among His wonders is this: He creates for you mates out of your own kind, so that you might incline towards them, and He engenders love and tenderness between you: in this, behold, there are messages indeed for people who think (Ar Rum 30:21)!