Over the weekend the CSO published the latest information on weddings and statistics on marriages in Ireland - for 2010 (I know, it's way behind, but such are statistics) So we thought you would be interested to see how  things are these days - how do you stack up in terms of age or choice of ceremony? We've pulled 5 headlines from the marriage statistics for Ireland 2010 to give you a flavour of the state of the nation...

1. Getting Hitched is Pretty Popular

There were 20,594 marriages registered in Ireland in 2010. This was lower than 2009 by a little, but holding steady.

2. 1 in 3 marriages is a civil ceremony

• 67% were Roman Catholic (13,781)
• 29% were civil marriages  (5,991)

There was an interesting urban-rural split among the wedding ceremonies across Ireland - in Dublin 40% were civil ceremonies, while in the border counties it averaged 20%.

3. Keep the Weekend Free

Weekends were the most popular for weddings with 69% of marriages in Ireland taking place on a Friday or Saturday. But only 1% on a Sunday.

The most popular day of the 2010 for weddings was Saturday 31st July with 257 (1%) marriages taking place, closely followed by Saturday 10th September (255 ceremonies)

4. Are you a Child Bride or Miss Average?

No surprise but we're not all spring chickens getting wed these days. In 2010 the average age of brides in Ireland was 32, while the average age of grooms was 34. The groom was older than the bride in 63% of marriages.

5. Coming Home or Coming to Visit

Ireland continued to be popular as a wedding destination for couples travelling from abroad. In 2010, 1,545 (8%) marriages involved both the bride and groom living outside the State before marriage. It would be interesting to see a breakdown of whether these were Irish couples coming home, or couples who chose Ireland as a destination wedding location.

Image: This Modern Love