Hills-based social demographer Mark McCrindle has backed up a survey by super-fund bank ME that the Millennial generation - those aged 21-38 - are either buying a home before or instead of a wedding.
The nation-wide ME survey found that 23pc of Millennials delayed or downsized their wedding, 21% delayed or downsized their honeymoon and 24% decided to delay or have few children so as to commit to a mortgage.
With the average cost of a wedding around $36,000 and home prices skyrocketing, it is no wonder that couples are weighing up their options.
Mr McCrindle, in ratifying those figures, said the crux of couples’ dilemma was that they were marrying later - 29 for women and 31 for men - clashing with the time they wanted to buy a home.
“What we have here is two life stages colliding and with the rising house and wedding costs - that is a challenge,” Mr McCrindle said.
However, as head of ME Home Loans, Patrick Nolan, attests, Mr McCrindle said that many couples still wanted to have their cake and eat it as well, with a smaller or less extravagant wedding.
“What we’ve seen is that with a little lateral thinking and some sensible saving and budgeting, couples are finding increasingly savvy ways to save for their house deposit and eat their wedding cake too,” Mr Nolan said.
Mr McCrindle said parents helped with the costs of weddings, as well as putting in for home deposits, and guests were also giving cash gifts or providing services as a gift.
“With social media, couples still want the wow factor for weddings. They are like events these days. As 70 pc of couples no longer marry in a church, civil ceremonies add to the cost,” he said.
Mr McCrindle said baby boomer parents - the most financially-sound generation - not only helped directly with weddings and mortgages, but also in allowing children to live at home while they saved for their own place, or lending them the family car.
