More people planning weddings online

The Church of England’s online wedding planner has experienced a 74 per cent rise in visitors in the last year.

More than 240,000 people have visited the YourChurchWedding.org website in the last 10 months, compared to 139,000 visitors during the same period in 2009.

The site was set up by the Church of England two years ago as part of a package of measures to encourage people to have a church wedding.

The website features an online ceremony planner, which allows couples to choose their hymns and Bible readings. It has proved a surprise hit, being used by more than 39,000 out of the 112,000 couples who married at a Church of England church in the last two years.

The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Michael Scott-Joynt, said: “When the country is particularly focusing on the heartening news of a Royal Wedding, it is tremendous to see that so many people are thinking of taking the same journey into married life with a church wedding. By getting married in church, couples are able to enjoy the support of a priest, the wonderful wedding vows and a beautiful place.”

The Church of England has reformed its approach to weddings in recent years in a bid to increase the number of people choosing a church as the setting for their wedding over the tough competition from country houses and hotels.

In 2008, it relaxed its rules on weddings to make it easier for engaged couples to marry in the church of their choice.

Under previous regulations, couples were confined to choosing from churches they had attended or that were located in the parish within which they resided.

The change meant they could marry in a church with which they had a connection.