Wedding bookings in 2021 to double after coronavirus lockdown
Singles and couples have been desperate to get back out of lockdowns and demand will change everything next year. This is what you must do now and how to keep the spark.
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Australia is set for a sizzling summer of love as singles make up for lost time, and engaged couples finally get to celebrate their wedding days.
Lockdowns forced many of us to put our romantic lives on hold in 2020, with data from the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages showing massive declines in the number of couples tying the knot.
There were 3832 weddings registered across Australia in August, down from 7174 in August 2019.
Singles were stymied too, if massive drops in sexually transmitted infections this year can be taken as a rough indication. (Rates of chlamydia, for example, are 40 per cent down in 2020.)
But data from matchmaking site Tinder reveals the love bug was still biting away, even in the depths of lockdown.
Aussie Tinder members were sending up to 57 per cent more messages than normal while they were stuck at home, and “swipe volume” for the under-25s was up 50 per cent.
Restrictions are easing at just the right time, Melbourne-based dating coach Audrey Claire said.
“Spring is often a time of year when people are looking to dust off those cobwebs and perhaps become a little bit more engaged in their social life,” Ms Claire said.
“There’s this real optimism as the weather starts to improve, and I sense that’s only exacerbated when you’ve been locked in your home for a long period of time. There’s optimism for a year ahead that comes with more human connection.”
Engaged couples are also starting to make firm plans for their big days, Danielle Keightley from The Wedding Playbook blog, said.
“There’s going to be two years’ worth of weddings in 2021,” Ms Keightley said.
“We know from the venues and suppliers that the weekends and popular dates are already booking up quickly, so people are going to have to start thinking about weekday weddings next year because there’s a huge volume of weddings that haven’t taken place this year.”
This will include couples who got hitched in 2020 but who are waiting to party properly with family and friends – an event that Ms Keightley called an ‘I do, take two’.
But clearly not all Aussies couples are in a celebratory mood just now. After lockdowns first eased in Wuhan, the divorce rate doubled as cooped-up couples raced to get away from each other. Could a similar thing happen here?
According to Relationships Australia’s national executive officer Nick Tebbey, such a trend is not showing up in statistics – yet.
And as couples have to be separated for 12 months in Australia before they can divorce, we won’t know if the virus caused a divorce spike until 2021.
Demand for Relationship Australia’s counselling services has been at its usual level, with just small increases in some areas, Mr Tebbey said.
“We couldn’t sit here and say yes, we will see what the headlines said happened in Wuhan,” he said. “But we did a survey in June, and 42 per cent of respondents said they had suffered a negative impact on their partner relationship, which is quite a high percentage.
“We know that this time has increased pressure on people, both in terms of their individual mental health and also their relationships.”
Presumably COVID-19 will prove deadly to some relationships, and those people will ultimately swell the ranks of Australian singles.
The dating scene for the rest of 2020 and into 2021 could be in for a sort of frenzied shake-up not seen in decades.
But what are the prospects for finding love and romance in Australia in 2020? And once found, what are the chances of keeping it alive?
According to the latest available ABS data, there were 119,188 registered marriages in Australia in 2018, and 49,404 divorces.
Over the past 20 years, the crude marriage rate (marriages per 1000 people) has declined from 5.9 in 1998 to 4.8 per in 2018, and the crude divorce rate has fallen from 2.7 to 2.0 over the same period.
Meanwhile, the proportion of people living on their own has stayed pretty constant, hovering between 9.2 and 9.4 per cent, according to the government’s Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia study.
TOP CHEF: ‘HOW I WOOED MY WIFE’
When celebrity chef Darren Robertson offers advice about how to impress a new love with your culinary skills, listen up.
“It’s a massive cliche, but keep it simple,” Robertson said.
“Smashing a crab and getting messy is awesome but leave that to date three or four.”
He first ‘plated up’ for meteorologist Magdalena Roze in the early days of their relationship, and they’re married with two kids now.
The man knows what he’s talking about.
That said, it doesn’t sound like he followed his own advice about keeping things simple for the first meal too closely.
“We came on holiday to Byron Bay together, and I went picking stuff just to really impress her,” he said.
“We took an esky full of food up – I think it was a pork dish – but green mangoes were in season so we just went and picked loads of green mangoes from the tree, different nasturtiums and forest herbs, and I threw a bit of a salad together.”
“I hit it out of the ballpark,” he said with a laugh.
Of course, you’d expect nothing less from the man behind such name-dropped restaurants as Three Blue Ducks (Sydney) and The Farm (Byron Bay).
What about Jo or Joe Average, whose kitchen skills may be roughly on par with, say, a precocious toddler? If we’re trying to impress a potential new partner, should some of us just stick to restaurants?
“Everyone should try,” Robertson urged.
“Keep it real. Walk before you run. As much as I think people should go out to restaurants too, I also think it’s really important to cook for yourself and your partner.
“The gesture of cooking, even just making the effort to cook, is quite an impressive thing.”
And if you’re in the mood for love, start with love, he suggested.
“Cook food that you love. If it’s someone you want to impress, a dish that’s close to your heart; a family favourite or a tried and tested recipe is always good,” he said.
“Otherwise you’ll be so stressed out at the time of the occasion, thinking about if you’ve burnt it, overcooked or undercooked it, it will be hard to engage with your potential partner.”
“Maybe don’t start with souffles and whole pork shoulders. Just start slowly,” Robertson advised.
“And in terms of romance … chocolate, oysters and champagne never fail.”
THREE DISHES TO IMPRESS YOUR DATE BY DARREN ROBERTSON
Watermelon, spelt and radish salad
INGREDIENTS
100g spelt (from health food stores)
200g watermelon, peeled, cut into large wedges
1 Lebanese cucumber, cut into long wedges
100g cherry tomatoes, halved
3 radishes, very thinly sliced
Pinch of dried chilli flakes
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
Lime halves and mixed micro herbs, to serve
METHOD
1. Place spelt and 1 tsp salt in a pan of cold water over high heat. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer for 45 minutes or until tender.
2. Drain and refresh, then arrange in a serving bowl with watermelon, cucumber, tomato, radish and chilli. Drizzle with oil and season.
3. Squeeze over lime and scatter with herbs to serve.
Prawns with herby mayo and gem lettuce
INGREDIENTS
10 gem lettuce leaves
1/3 cup (100g) whole-egg mayonnaise
1 tbs flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tsp capers, rinsed, drained, chopped
2 tsp chopped chives
1 Granny Smith apple, cut into matchsticks
10 cooked prawns, peeled (tails intact), de-veined
Juice and finely grated zest of 1/2 a lime
1/2 tsp smoked paprika (pimenton)
METHOD
1. Arrange lettuce on a platter.
2. Place the mayonnaise, parsley, capers and chives in a bowl and stir to combine. Season.
3. Dollop into lettuce and top with apple and prawns.
4. Drizzle over lime juice and sprinkle with zest and paprika to serve.
Choc ganache bowls with lychees and macadamia
INGREDIENTS
200g dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (250ml) pure (thin) cream
1 tbs glucose syrup
1/3 cup (50g) roasted chopped macadamias
8 lychees, peeled, stones removed
1 kaffir lime leaf, finely shredded
Sea salt flakes, to serve
METHOD
1. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set aside. Place cream and glucose in a saucepan over medium heat. When cream starts to bubble around the edges, pour over chocolate. Stir until melted. Divide ganache between two 1-cup (250ml-capacity) dishes and smooth the surface. Chill for 2-3 hours until just set.
2. Top with macadamia, lychees and kaffir lime. Sprinkle with a little salt to serve.
Recipes Darren Robertson/delicious.
Photography Mark Roper
Styling Kirsten Jenkins
Check out delicious.com.au for more great recipes for romance.