Some believed that they were married, but there is no formal wedding in the church or any proofs of their wedding. Marriage is sacred and is done in the course of priest. They never really got married. Maybe one of the reasons why Josephine Bracken has not accepted by people then because they taught and believed what they did was morally wrong. We really don’t know what the truth is.
As long as no confirmations of any documents we cannot say that the ceremony had occurred.
Read the Cuerpo de Vigilancia report which was made available in the 1990s. The Spanish intelligence operative witnessed and reported the wedding of Rizal and Josephine officiated by a military chaplain on the morning of the execution. This wedding was the whole point of Rizal's retraction negotiation; the only thing he cared about was that Josephine be made his legal wife before he dies. The only reason he signed the retraction document (a document that he knew doesn't reflect his true beliefs) was as a quid pro quo with the Catholic hierarchy. But I believe as a final insult to a man who they hated more than Satan himself, the friars destroyed all evidence of the nuptials. I suspect this was with the tacit consent of Rizal's mother and sisters (except perhaps Pilar) who hated Josephine and looked down on her as a sinful, fallen woman below their station.
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