Marriage Act changes cut church weddings to new low

ONLY one in three people now marries in church after the law was changed to allow weddings in castles and stately homes, according to research.

The Marriage Act 1994 permitted a variety of premises to be used by local authorities for civil ceremonies, lifting restrictions on couples holding their nuptials at a register office and letting them marry outside their district of residence.

As a result, just 30 per cent of all weddings that took place in 2012 were religious ceremonies – the smallest proportion since records began. John Haskey, an Oxford University demographer, said the rapid rise of marriages in “approved premises” was one of the most dramatic changes of the past 170 years.

Church weddings and register office weddings had dropped significantly since the introduction of the Act.

Mr Haskey, who has analysed data to chart the history of marriage since early Victorian times, said: “The growth in marriages in approved premises has largely been at the expense of religious marriages.”

He added that until the law was changed, most first marriages for both partners were religious ceremonies.

When the act was introduced, between 1995 and 1996, just three per cent of first marriages took place in other buildings, with 60 per cent still opting for religious ceremonies and most others choosing a register office.

But by 2011, 53 per cent took place in buildings such as castles and hotels, whilst 37 per cent chose a church wedding and around 10 per cent were married in a register office.

Mr Haskey said: “Though the change in the law quickened the fall in traditional church weddings, the decline began in the 1970s – the start of a period of enormous social upheaval.

“There have been large changes in sexual and partnership behaviour, with rates of divorce, cohabitation, premarital cohabitation and births outside marriage rising considerably. Together with growing secularisation, these factors probably reinforced the trend towards civil marriage.”

The vast majority of Muslims and Sikhs who marry under English law have a civil marriage and are not counted amongst those choosing a religious ceremony. That marriage is then often followed by a religious ceremony.