Fewer opting for wedded bliss

Photo / Rachel Jordan, Two Little Starfish

Narelle Dinsdale never thought she would meet the love of her life while stacking shelves at a supermarket - but now she is one of a rising number of people taking their vows in Northland.

The Whangarei woman is happily married with two children to a Coca-Cola merchandiser she met while working at Whangarei New World five years ago.

Narelle, 23, and Daniel, 24, had their "perfect" wedding at Ruakaka Beach on January 31.

According to new data from Statistics NZ, 551 couples married in Northland in 2014, an increase on marriages in 2013 but fewer than five years ago.

"People say 'Oh, it's young love'. I guess it is, but we act like an old married couple," Mrs Dinsdale said. "You just know when it's right. We can talk for hours and not get bored.

"Both our families live in Northland and we have our own little family here so we wanted to get married somewhere close to home."

Marriage was always on the cards for Narelle.

"We got engaged after 11 months but we didn't make any real wedding plans straightaway," she said. "It was quite a while before we started planning it, then when the day came, it was perfect."

Nationally, there were 20,125 marriages last year - 888 more than in 2013. There were 19,639 opposite sex marriages and 486 same sex marriages.

A further 2507 opposite sex marriages and 391 same sex marriages were registered to overseas residents.

It was the first full year of same sex marriage registrations since the Marriage Amendment Act came into effect in August, 2013.

The number of same sex civil unions dropped significantly in 2014, with couples opting to marry instead.

Only 19 same sex civil unions were registered to New Zealanders in 2014, down from 121 in 2013, while there were 277 more same sex marriages last year than in 2013. Meanwhile, 63 civil union and 8171 married couples divorced in 2014. A little more than one third of couples who married in 1989 had divorced before their 25th wedding anniversary.

Couples must be separated for more than two years before they can divorce, so no same sex marriages have formally dissolved.

Celebrants Association president Elizabeth Bennett said several factors affected the number of marriages.

"If you compare the rate of marriage 20 years ago to now, it's decreased," she said. "A lot of people are delaying when they get married. Women are having a more prominent role in the workforce, and people travel more than they used to."

The association had noticed the uptake in same sex marriages, she said.

"Members certainly noticed fewer civil unions taking place. There was quite a number of couples who came from Australia to get married here."