A new law, known as the ‘Church of England Marriage Measure’, was launched on October 1^st and allows engaged couples to marry in the church of their choice. The previously strict rules demanded that couples could only marry in churches they attended or that were located in the parish where they lived. The new law has fewer rules regarding which of the Church of England's 16,000 churches couples can choose from.

This move comes as the demand for civil weddings in hotels, stately homes and other privately owned locations has shown a marked increase. More than 50,000 marriages a year are now celebrated in such locations while Church of England services have declined by 40 per cent, from more than 100,000 a year to 60,000 since the early 1990s.