There are celebrations of all types and formats, but Rioja couples prefer to feel accompanied during their marriage. La Rioja, according to the latest data from the Essential Wedding Book – prepared by the leading platform in the wedding sector, Bodas.net; the teacher of … Esade Carles Torrecilla and Google –, is the second autonomous community where on average the most guests attend a wedding, attended by 162 people.
The region is thus above the national average (set at 117) and is only surpassed in this ranking by Murcia (with an average number of diners of 164). On the other side of the scale are Catalonia and Cantabria, which have seen this number reduced to 81 people. They are closely followed by Asturias (with 91), the Balearic and Canary Islands (with 93, respectively), and Navarra and the Basque Country (with 95 guests on average in each of these two communities).
Getting married in one region has nothing to do with another, not only because of the number of people invited to a wedding, but because of the outlay required for each of them. At this point, La Rioja stands as the eighth community in which the largest budget is allocated for each of the attendees, with an average expenditure of 196 euros per guest. Asturias and the Balearic Islands, on the other hand, lead the classification with a cost of 267 and 261 euros per person, while Andalusia and Murcia have it more moderate, with an average expenditure of 144 and 134 euros for each guest who attends the event, respectively. .
More weddings
Riojans, in any case, decide to get married more and more. In 2022 alone, 1,214 marriages were celebrated in the community, a figure that is 24.9% more than in the previous year (when there were 972 marriages, after the outbreak of the pandemic) and 7.7% more than those that They were registered in 2014 (when 1,127 couples said ‘I do’ in the region). Most of these celebrations occurred in summer and autumn, with 453 and 323 unions; The months of June (with 140), July (195) and September (140) being the most popular months to get married, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
This year, for example, the month of June stands as one of the favorites to organize any type of event. “It’s a barbarity. June is a pretty powerful month; It is noticeable both at weddings and at different events,” says Carmen Gutiérrez, director of Carmen Ijalba Eventos. In fact, for this weekend alone they have three events planned, “one tomorrow, another on Saturday and a wedding on Sunday for a couple from abroad who, since they couldn’t find a place for this month, decided to get married on Sunday because everything was busy.” ».
In La Rioja, the vast majority of couples prefer to organize a civil wedding. So much so that just two years ago – the latest data available – 989 marriages of this type were celebrated (a figure that represents 81% of the total), which contrasts with the 225 couples who opted for a religious ceremony (a figure that represents the 19%). The trend in recent years of these marriages has also been upward to the point that they now represent 37.2% more than in the previous eight years. Not in vain, they have gone from the 721 civil marriages that were registered in 2014 and 2015 to 802 the following year; to 768 in 2017, to 869 in 2018, to 856 in 2019, to 564 in the year of the pandemic, to 824 in 2021 and to 989 in 2022).
On the other side of the scale are religious ceremonies, which have been gradually reduced. In fact, they have gone from representing 36% in 2014 (when 406 marriages of this type were celebrated), to 33% in 2015 (357 links), to 30% the following year (283), to 27% in 2017 (283 ), to 24% of 2018 (with 272 links), to 23% of 2019 (with 261 religious ceremonies), to 9% of the year of the pandemic (there were 59 celebrations), to 15% of 2021 (148) and to 19 % of 2022 (figure that represents 225 links).
Same sex marriages
INE statistics also show how many relationships occurred between people of the same sex – which has been allowed in Spain since 2005. In total, since there have been records (since 2010), 250 weddings have been celebrated, 37 of them in 2022. Couples made up of women were the ones that got married the most over the last twelve years (139 women got married, the 55.6% of the total). Men recorded the lowest number of same-sex weddings: 111 men have married since 2010, of which 16 decided to walk down the aisle just two years ago.
