mariage vs noce

Question

In French, what is the distinction between le mariage vs la noce.

I understand that le mariage is the commitment you make to another person.

But, what I find it a little confusing is that I've seen the two words used interchangably to describe the ceremony on the wedding day. Please explain this difference.

Accepted Answer

Hi Tom, 
This is an interesting question and not easy to answer as both 'mariage' and 'noce' can mean the actual day rather than the institution.
You could actually both -

Je vais à un mariage ce weekend
or 
Je vais à une noce ce weekend.

'Noce' is used to describe the whole event taking place to celebrate a solemn union between two people but as you can see from my example, you can use 'mariage' in this sense too,  but the reverse isn't true.
Please take a look at the following pages from Larousse which give you lots of examples of their usage -
https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/mariage/49471
https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/noce/54730
Hope this helps!