Big wedding blowout: Sydneysiders engaged for longer than ever

The days of sprinting down the aisle are over, with Sydneysiders now waiting two years on average to tie the knot. See why.

Knot now: Sydneysiders are waiting longer than ever to tie the knot.

Australians are now waiting at least two years on average to tie the knot after popping the question, forced to delay the big day due to spiralling cost of living pressures.

New data from wedding planning company Easy Weddings revealed young Aussies average engagement length is 24 months, as wedding costs reach record new heights.

By the time Sydney couple Natalia Canak and Max Rebchuk say “I do” the couple will have been engaged for two years.

“When we got engaged we knew we had to start saving, so we gave ourselves two years to save up enough money,” Ms Canak said.

The couple choose to delay their wedding to get their finances in order and prioritise buying property. It’s meant they have been able to pour more cash into their big day.

“We picked getting an apartment first, we wanted to buy a place to live before we got married,” Mr Rebchuk said.

Senior wedding planner from Easy Weddings Darcy Allen said that she is increasingly seeing couples toss up between a home or marriage first.

Natalia Canak and Max Rebchuk will tie the knot two years after they got engaged. Picture: Tom Parrish

According to Easy Weddings annual report, 10 years ago, the average engagement length was 21 months. Over the last decade, it has consistently stayed between 21 and 22 months until this year, when it jumped to 24.

When faced with choosing between a big lavish wedding or buying a home, “people tend to pick the house,” said Ms Allen.

“It’s not necessarily that they won’t get married at all, but they will be cutting costs and having a micro wedding,” she said.

According to the Easy Weddings survey of more than 4000 couples and 800 wedding businesses, an average Australian wedding now costs $35,315, an increase of 4.5 per cent compared to 2024.

However, 13 per cent of surveyed couples exceed this mark, spending over $60,000 to get hitched.

Mr Rebchuck and Ms Canak are budgeting $70,000 for their wedding, a figure they said is ‘the average to what their friends have spent.”

“We have cut costs by not having an engagement party, and we have done a package as it is a cheaper way to do things,” Ms Canak said.

Not all weddings are equal in Australia. How much you spend depends on where you get married.

In NSW a wedding will set couples back at least $38,566, making the state the most expensive wedding destination in Australia. The cheapest wedding state takes place under takes place in the Northern Territory, costing just $25,150.

In a bid to cut back on spiralling costs, 69 per cent of couples have reduced their wedding budget, due to cost of living concerns. Data found that couples invite 28 fewer guests than they want to.

Demographer and social analyst Mark McCrindle says couples now need time to save for weddings.

Jess Youell has been engaged for over two years. She decided to have a long engagement to save money and ensure her ­relationship was “super strong”.

“When we got engaged we assessed our finances and figured out we did want to buy a house first before we got married but as house prices have gone up in Sydney, we have had to push the house off so the wedding can be what we want it to be,” she said.

“It’s a bit of both, making sure our relationship is super strong, but also making sure we can afford to buy a house and have a wedding.

“We have our deposit but are waiting until we get married, hopefully towards the end of this year.

She said having the longer engagement had helped them save money.

“My partner and I both work full time jobs so we have been able to save a lot of money for our wedding and it is essentially paid off,” she said.

While prices might be at a record high it hasn’t dampened our desire to get married – the wedding industry is bigger than ever, with a record 120,000 Australian couples marrying last year. The events themselves however are much smaller.

Senior wedding planner from Easy Weddings Darcy Allen said what we learned during Covid was “people will never stop getting married”.

“There’s around 120,000 thousand weddings a year in Australia so they are certainly bigger than ever,” she said.

“In order to combat the cost of living crisis and inflation, couples are just waiting longer to get married,” she said.

Demographer and social analyst Mark McCrindle said weddings had changed drastically in recent years.

“In the past the wedding was a bit more practical, it was at the local church with some food afterwords, and now they are quite an event and it comes at a cost,” he said.

“You have got two factors for the delay – it’s saving for the cost of the event but it is also giving them enough time to book the wedding and the venue.”

Originally published as Big wedding blowout: Sydneysiders engaged for longer than ever