Aussie wedding trends revealed: More than three quarters of couples now opt for celebrants
The race to get to the church on time is well and truly over for young Australian lovebirds, with new figures revealing traditional nuptials are quickly becoming relics of our past.
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More than three quarters of the nation’s marriages are now performed by civil celebrants, a new report by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) has found.
This compares to just 12 per cent of non-church weddings five decades ago.
“By 2018, (almost) 80 per cent of marriages were conducted by civil celebrants while one-fifth were conducted by ministers of religion,” the recently-released study, a snapshot of changes in couple relationships, reports.
The 2018 ABS Marriages report reveals an even higher proportion, showing that 95,003 marriages (or 79.7 per cent of all ceremonies) involved a civil celebrant in 2018 – the statistics for 2019 are not due for release until November.
For celebrity celebrant Dorinda Hafner, a registered celebrant for the past 12 years, the trend reflects couples’ desire to shape their own day – she constantly gets caught up in the love stories people share with her.
“Couples are all different and part of the excitement is bringing their love story to life,” she said.
“I take down their love story and I write it like a Mills and Boonstory so they can share it with their children and grand children in the future – how they met, what inspired the love between them, how they came to be here.
“Oh my God, I love it … I have the chance to help bring a couple’s dreams to life and because a celebrant is secular and not connected to religious or spiritual matters, it allows the couple to have a more flamboyant, colourful ceremony alongside their serious vows.
“In this day and age of misery and disease, heartbreak and unhappiness, it is so refreshing to be officiating at a happy event where people are happy and excited … there is love in the air and it is just gorgeous.”
Long-time Adelaide-based celebrant Pamela Schultz says the statistics reflect the growth she has seen first-hand.
In 1973 there were 13 civil celebrants across the country, today there are about 9000.
“The appeal of celebrants in the early days was it allowed couples to choose where they got married – they could do it in a public park, up a tree, in a balloon, under water if they wanted to,” Ms Schultz, a 25-year industry veteran, said.
“Today there are themed weddings, pop-up weddings … drive-through weddings where people practically drive up, jump out, get married, sign everything and drive off again.”
But she said while more couples were opting against tying the knot in a church, many still wanted to include conventional aspects of a church wedding.
“It is amazing how many people still want the traditional feel of a wedding, including traditional vows … they want the ‘I do’ and ‘I will’,” Ms Schultz said.
The coronavirus pandemic has, of course, changed the plans of many in 2020 with Ms Schultz estimating 90 per cent of couples have postponed their plans to wed this year.
For Ross and Sarah Reed, who both work in the firefighting sector, getting married by a celebrant Ann Gant in the heart of Burbrook Forest made perfect sense, and they were lucky to wed in March just prior to any COVID-19 restrictions.
“We were 110 per cent on the same page,” Mr Ross, 33, said.
“We are both easygoing and outgoing and wanted something a bit different … we wanted a celebration and a bit of romance where people could stand or sit, to just be themselves and to socialise.
“We loved the idea of being in a forest and getting married in front of an old rustic tree.”
Tell us your non-traditional wedding experiences in the comments below.
