Marriages up? Yes!

A few days ago, the government released figures for the number of weddings held in 2008. The headlines looked grim. The BBC’s web site ran with “Marriage rate falls to lowest since records began”. The Guardian has “I don’t: Marriage rates crash to all time low”. Bad news for a web site like ours and for the venues on it you might think. Actually, it’s not. Look a bit closer and there is good news there.
It’s true that the overall number of marriages in the year did fall, by 2,380 but weddings in approved venues increased by a healthy 4,410. Approved venues are the hotels, castles, ships and golf clubs you will find on WeddingVenues.com.

http://www.weddingvenues.com/venue3998.html

This rise is part of a trend. Back in 1998, just 11% of weddings were held in approved venues. That rate has grown every year. In 2000 it was 17%. By 2005 it has risen to 36%. By 2008, the figure was 45%.
The actual numbers have grown too.  In 1998 there were 28,879 weddings in approved premises. In 2000 45,792. In 2005 there were 90,239 and in 2008 105,570.
The losers have been registry offices whose share of weddings has fallen to 22% in 2008 compared to 47% in 2000 and religious weddings which accounted for 33% of weddings in 2008, compared to 36% in 2000.
Of course economic conditions will persuade some couple to wait and most people will be anxious to spend a little less on the do but so far the situation for a site like ours and the venues we have listed seems pretty good.