I'm too idle to LIU at the moment, but most certainly the cutom of "jumping over the broomstick" is ancient british. Possibly an adaptation of druidic ceremonies? But definitely used by the lower classes and especially by sectors of the population who were not accepted within society - outlaws, gypsies and itinerant workers. It was a way of declaring to the rest of your social group that the two of you were "an item" and that it was unacceptable for other members of the group to pay any sort of addresses to either of the participants unless and until they had declared the arrangement to be over. Jumping the broomstick continued right into the C20 in some parts of Britain (and may still happen, for all I know!)
There were also a variety of "divorce" ceremonies, including that of auctioning your wife! This was often a pre-arranged thing, with only one bidder, although not always so. Usually (but not always) the wife was able to exercise some degree veto on whom she should end up with.
