I sincerely doubt the Church will be interested in marrying a man to a manifestation of a pagan nature spirit -- no matter how cute she is.
You're right though... they're all but married in consummation (ignores lots of doujinshi) as far as sane people not under the thumb of the Church are concerned. This is one instance where rural "unsophisticated" peoples would be more open to common-law arrangements than "urban right-thinking" folk.
I have speculation how the series will end... but it may be unsatisfactory to some.
@Anh: I don't *think* it was a plot hole... I think he was out of the "chatter" loop because he took the empty road that only Nora was on. Therefore, he missed out on gossip that may have been traveling the other roads.
However, I haven't started the second volume of the novel to decide if from a purely anime standpoint it maintains self-consistency. The anime itself doesn't really even mention the reason for armor being wanted or why it suddenly plummeted in value.