This song has been quite widely recorded in the folk revival; almost all such recordings are arrangements of the set famously associated with the Copper Family of Rottingdean in Sussex. Text and tune, noted by Kate Lee from either William or Thomas Copper, appeared in the first edition of The Journal of the Folk Song Society in 1898; differing only a little from the way the family sings it (when performed solo) over a century later. They don't as a rule sing the precise text in the family song book; instead of wherein all my joys... in verse 1, for example, they generally sing where.

THE WEDDING SONG

(Noted by Kate Lee from Mr. Copper, c.1898)

Come write me down, ye powers above,
The man that first created love,
For I've a diamont in my eye,
Where all my joys and comforts lie
Where all my joys and comforts lie.

"I'll give you gold, I'll give you pearl,
If you can fancy me, dear girl.
I'll give you more, as you shall hear,
If you can fancy me, my dear
If you can fancy me, my dear."

"It's not your gold shall me entice,
For to leave all pleasures to be your wife,
For it's I don't mean to intend at all
To be at any young man's call."

"Now go your way, you scornful dame,
Since you are false, I'll prove the same,
It's I don't fear, but I shall find,
Some other fair maid to my mind!"

"Now stay, young man, don't be in haste,
You seems afraid your time you'll waste,
Let seasons rule your roving mind,
And unto you I will prove kind."

To church they went the very next day,
And was married by asking, as I've 'eard say,
And now that girl she is his wife,
She'll prove his comforts day and night.

But now my sorrows and troubles past,
My joy and comforts come at last,
That girl to me always said nay,
She'll prove his comforts night and day.

The song appeared in a number of scarcely-varying broadside editions, generally as Second Thoughts are [is] Best from the turn of the 18th/19th centuries onward, in a form very close to texts found in 20th century tradition. Of some 11 examples at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, this is typical:

Second thought is best ("Come write me down ye powers above ...")  Printed between 1819 and 1844 by J. Pitts, wholesale Toy, and Marble warehouse, 6, Gt. Saint Andrews Street, Seven Dials [London].

Beside the ubiquitous Copper Family set, the song has been found in a number of parts of England during the 20th century (first half, mainly), in Aberdeenshire, and occasionally in the USA and Canada.