Oxford,
31
May
2017
|
09:17
Europe/London

Oxfordshire weddings rise by nearly ten per cent in the space of a year

The number of marriages in Oxfordshire rose by almost 10 per cent during 2016/17 when compared to the previous year, ahead of national trends.

Oxfordshire County Council’s Registration Service has reported that the number of weddings taking place during the year rose to 2,560 – up from 2,356 in 2015/16.

The Registration Service has a strong track record of promoting Oxfordshire as “the place to marry” and each year launches a new brochure in a bid to choose the county as a wedding venue and to residents to hold their ceremony in their home county.

Alicja Gilroy, Oxfordshire County Council’s Superintendent Registrar, said: “The strong increase in the number of weddings is a real boost to the local economy. By putting effort in to attracting people from elsewhere to hold their ceremony in Oxfordshire we bring trade for hoteliers, restaurants and a whole host of other tourism related ventures. All of that helps Oxfordshire thrive and we’re very proud of the statistics for the lasts 12 months.

“We’re clearly lucky to have so many spectacular places that attract people to Oxfordshire for weddings, such as Blenheim Palace, the Ashmolean and University related venues. However we do make the most of that advantage by promoting those places and others quite heavily. That is clearly reaping dividends.

“We’ve just recently launched our new wedding brochure and we will continue to do whatever we can to market Oxfordshire as the place to get married. Hopefully we will be able to build further on the 9.5 per cent increase in weddings we have seen in the last 12 months”.

Oxfordshire County Council’s Registration Service operates out of Registration Offices in Abingdon, Banbury, Bicester, Didcot, Henley, Oxford and Witney.