More than a third of marriages in Greater Manchester include at least one partner tying the knot again – above the national average.
A whopping 2,961 out of 8,657 weddings – 34.6% – in the region in 2010 involved remarriage for the bride, groom or both, new figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.
In Bolton, Bury and Rochdale, remarriage topped 40%, with Bury showcasing the highest proportion of nuptials involving an ‘I do’ for at least a second time, at 42%.
In stark contrast, only slightly more than a quarter of weddings within the Manchester authority were remarriages.
Reverend Jane Barraclough, of the Cross Street Unitarian Chapel, said she would take into account the amount of times someone had been married when deciding whether to wed them.
“If someone had married and remarried a lot, maybe twice or three times, I would start to ask questions,” she said.
“In a marriage you’re making promises and I myself take promises quite seriously. We don’t consider the breakdown of a marriage an irrevocable thing.”
She also explained that because of her chapel’s location in the city centre, there were not many weddings there, but that they could involve a divorcee or be multi-faith.
This pattern appears to be repeated across the Manchester vicinity, as just 17.6% of weddings in the borough were religious – the lowest of any authority area in Greater Manchester.
Tameside and Trafford provided the highest proportion of religious ceremonies, with approximately 42% of holy nuptials in each borough.
The number of marriages that were religious ceremonies in the county has fallen to 32% most recently, around the same as the national average.
The proportion of religious ceremonies in England and Wales has steadily decreased over the years – in 2001 35.7% of weddings were not civil, from just over half in 1991.
Reverend Barraclough said the one key distinction she would make is if one or both of a couple was religious.
She added: “If they’re not I have to question why they are getting married on religious premises. People can get married in hotels, where they want.
“In five years here I can’t think of ever turning away a couple – I would if they didn’t take marriage seriously, but that’s never happened.”
Since the turn of the century, the number of weddings in England and Wales where both bride and groom were married for the first time has steadily increased, from 58.3% in 2000 to 66% in 2010.
Civil marriages across the country from 1996 to 2011 for first-time brides and grooms increased from 42% to 60%, which the ONS attributed to more young people defining as atheists.
An ONS spokesman said: “Approved premises provide an alternative to church weddings for the less religious who have not previously been married.”
Picture courtesy of Grand Vela Riviera Maya, with thanks.
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