Meet the 31-year-old bride. She’s probably getting married in November

Do you remember what you were doing on November 11 last year?

It’s Remembrance Day, so you might have been at one of the many memorials held across the country. Maybe you were celebrating your freedom in line with “Singles’ Day”, a popular antidote to Valentine’s Day across Asia. Or perhaps, you were at a wedding.

November 11 was the most popular day for couples to tie the knot last year: 1799 couples walked down the aisle on that day across Australia.

Catherine Harbuz and Eugene Tang were married on November 11, 2023.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Eugene Tang and Catherine Harbuz, both 30, were one such couple, marrying at the National Art School in Sydney’s east, a fitting location given the pair met studying art in Perth in 2012.

Both creatives, Tang and Harbuz had their first-look photos taken at Hibernian House, a graffiti-laden building in central Sydney, home to many artists. “We wanted somewhere that would feel a little bit cool, unique and funky,” says Harbuz, a high school visual arts administrator.

They chose their wedding date, Tang says, “because it was easy to remember and with four ones and then 23 it was a nice sequence”.

“It just had a good feel for it.”

While neither were aware of the popularity of the day, Harbuz says many vendors were booked out for November 11. And Tang, who works as a customer service representative at men’s tailoring business InStitchu, which caters to many weddings, says he noticed the date crop up repeatedly.

Melbourne-based consultant Tony Tran, 32, and his husband Jake, a 36-year-old lawyer, were another 11/11 couple. Tran, who is Vietnamese, says he initially chose April 15, since his uncle had informed him this would be the most auspicious day to marry based on his and his husband’s zodiac signs (coincidentally, April 15 was the 10th most popular wedding day last year). But unfortunately, their preferred reception venue was booked out. The couple had a traditional tea ceremony on April 15, and moved their wedding to November.

“One of the non-negotiables was it had to be on Saturday,” says Tran of his choice of the day. “November is also a really nice time to get married. It’s the end of the year and the weather is getting warmer.”

Tran felt that 11/11 would look beautiful on their wedding invitations, and he appreciated the connotations the sequence holds.

“It symbolises – for me anyway – angels looking down at you, wishes coming true, that kind of thing. It was just a beautiful day, and it all just fit in perfectly.”

Tony Tran, right, and husband Jake Nguyen on their wedding day, November 11, 2023, with dog Louis.Credit: Wesley Vorster

The latest report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on marriage and divorce in Australia reveals the changing shape of Australian weddings. November was the most popular month for weddings overall, while July was the least popular. The top 10 most popular days were all Saturdays.

January 31 was the least popular date. Only 35 marriages were registered that day. Unsurprisingly, Christmas Day and Boxing Day were also unpopular. There were just 36 weddings on each of those days. The top 10 least popular days were all weekdays.

The new data also shows that Australians are increasingly choosing to get married later. In 2023, the median age for males at marriage was 32.9 and it was 31.2 for females. That’s an increase of 4.2 years for women over the past 20 years, and 3.9 years for men.

Shannen Nicholas, a 31-year-old HR adviser from Sydney, married her data scientist husband Peter, 31, in February this year. The couple, who met in their first year of university, were together for 10 years before tying the knot.

“We probably weren’t in a space financially that early on to have a wedding,” says Nicholas on why she waited a decade to marry her husband.

“Also, I think there are a lot of things that we both wanted to do, like travel, finish our degrees and obviously get a bit of professional experience in the workforce.”

Shannen and Peter Nicholas married earlier this year.Credit: James Rose

Indeed, people from Nicholas’ generation are waiting longer to marry – if they choose to even marry at all.

The ABS data reveals that the number of weddings fell by 6.9 per cent in 2023 after reaching a post-pandemic record high in 2022.

Among her peers, Nicholas says she was one of the last to marry.

And although many millennials are choosing to forgo marriage altogether, Nicholas says it is still a meaningful step.

“It’s really important to me that we’re a family unit,” she says.

“There was something really special about being legally recognised, signing the certificate and all that kind of fluffy stuff that comes with it.

“And seeing how much our friends enjoyed being with us; it was just for us a natural thing [to do].”

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