For whom the wedding bells toll…

YOUNG people are waiting longer before they are deciding to get married and settle down, a recent government survey suggests.

The average age for brides and grooms in the UK and Ireland has increased to 33.4 and 35.4 years respectively, compared with 26.5 years for brides and 28.6 years for grooms in 1991.

The survey also indicated that the average age of first-time mums has also risen, up from 25.5 years in 1991 to 29.2 years in 2021.

The average age of all mums similarly rose, from 27.9 years to 31.2 years over the last three decades.

With the skyrocketing costs of getting married, this is not surprising.

According to website, ‘weddingideas.com’, the cost of a wedding in the 1990s was just £5,000 – and that includes a larger average guest list of around 80.

The average price of a wedding is now five times more expensive, with fewer guests.

Currently costing a massive £25,000 on average, young people are now having to save up more for their dream day.

This price is only a couple of thousand pounds less than the average yearly salary of a person in the North, which sits at £27,000 annually.

The rate of divorce is also much higher than it was in 1990, with 30 per-cent more couples choosing to seperate and divorce.

There were 2,040 divorces granted in 2021, which is actually smaller than the peak numbers in the mid 2000s, which saw the number of divorces go above 3,000.

Furthermore, the amount of cohabiting families has massively increased, and is now the second largest family type in the UK.

This has been put down to the cost of weddings and a changing of attitudes about the value of the institution itself.

With the cost of living crisis and rising prices, people may be even more reluctant to rush into an expensive wedding.

Young people are, instead, using the money to buy their first house, and saving the costly affair to a later date.