The average age of brides and grooms increased again last year, with most people now getting married when they’re in their mid to late 30s, new figures show.
According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the average age for grooms in opposite-sex marriages is now 36.8-years-old, while the average age is 34.8 for brides.
The groom was older than the bride in 62.6 per cent of marriages in 2019.
In same sex-marriages, the average age for men is 39.8-years-old, and 39.3-years-old for women.
There were a total of 20,313 marriages in 2019, with the vast majority of those being heterosexual relationships, and 640 being same-sex relationships.
Jonathan Bryans, commercial director at Weddings Online, a company which helps couples plan their big day, said this is a trend that they have seen over the past 10 years or so.
“If you go back a generation, living together was frowned upon a lot more than it is now,” Mr Bryans said. “Now, most people are already living together already, have a house, or have kids, so there isn’t that same need to get married as there was.
“It seems now that couples are waiting for the right time to get married, so they can have a big party and celebration.”
August was the most popular month for weddings last year, which is typical as people have returned from holidays and the weather is still relatively warm, Mr Bryans said.
Over a quarter of all marriages took place in the months of July and August, while January continued to be the least popular month for marriage ceremonies.
However, Mr Bryans said that the busy wedding season could be different this year, as couples who had planned to wed inbetween March and July have pushed their dates back to the last quarter of the year.
Friday and Saturday were the most popular days of the week to get married for opposite-sex marriages, and Friday was the most popular day for same-sex marriages.
Friday December 6th was the most popular date for same-sex marriages in 2019 with 9 ceremonies, or 1.4 per cent of marriages, occurring on this day, while Friday July 26th was the most popular date for opposite-sex marriages in 2019 with 234 or 1.2 per cent of marriages taking place on that day.
Religious ceremonies counted for 59 per cent of all marriages in 2019, while the majority of non-religious ceremonies were civil marriages.
