Weddings can trigger a mix of emotions. On the one hand, as the common saying goes, it should be the happiest day of your life; on the other, many regard getting married as one of the most stressful things you can do, with the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale placing it on a par with personal injury or being fired.
Nonetheless, in hindsight, Britons who’ve been married are largely positive about their wedding, with a full 89% reporting having enjoyed tying the knot, even if it’s just over half (55%) who say they enjoyed it a lot. This does, though, leave a full one in nine (11%) saying they overall didn’t enjoy their wedding day.
Even among those who are no longer married, 80% say they still enjoyed the big day, though just 39% report having enjoyed it a lot, relative to a higher 61% of those whose marriage has worked out so far. Only 4% of those who are no longer married say they found no enjoyment at all in their wedding.
Do Britons enjoy attending weddings?
The enjoyment of weddings is far from limited to people’s own big day, with 59% of Britons enjoying attending other people’s weddings as guests. Nonetheless, there are a full third of Britons (34%) who are not so keen on sitting through other people coupling up, with this rising to 39% of men.
For many, though, being a guest at a wedding is not that regular an occurrence. The median Briton says they have attended just one wedding in the last five years, with 39% of the public recalling attending no weddings in that period.
Even among 25-34 year olds, the biggest wedding attenders, the median number of marriages witnessed in the last five years is just two, though roughly a quarter (27%) report having attended four or more weddings, falling to 14% among 35-44 year olds and no more than 6% of other age groups.
Do Britons want to get married?
Of course, not everyone wants to say “I do”. Among Britons who are currently unmarried, just 42% say they would want to get betrothed someday, while a similarly-sized 43% say they would not want to wed, including 25% who definitively rule it out.
But, of course, looking at all those who are currently unmarried doesn’t give the full picture, as a significant minority of these people are either divorced or widowed and thus may have strong personal reasons not to want a new marriage. Indeed, just 16% of those who have previously been married would like to get remarried.
Even among those who’ve never been married, desire to wed is far from universal, with just half (51%) hoping one day to find the right one, though this does rise to 70% of those aged under 35, just 16% of whom would like to stay unmarried.
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Photo: Getty