According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 121,176 weddings that year were performed by civil celebrants.
This was a far greater number than the 22 per cent of Australians who said they had ‘‘no religion’’ in the 2011 Census.
Over the last two decades, the crude marriage rate fell from 6.9 registered marriages for every 1000 people to 5.4 marriages per 1000 in 2010.
Only 16.7 per cent of marriages in churches were Anglican and around 33 per cent were Catholic.
The number of couples choosing to formalise their arrangement fell from 6.9 registered marriages per 1000 people in 1990 to 5.4 marriages per 1000 in 2010.
And if Anglican couples were offended by new vows asking women to submit to their husbands, marriage celebrant Nitza Lowenstein said there were plenty of other ways for couples to express their vows when getting married, including the opportunity of adding religious sentiments to a civil ceremony.
But while Australians are turning to secular ceremonies, the vows are remaining traditional.
When asked how many promise to love, cherish, unstack the dishwasher and put the garbage out, Ms Lowenstein, who has conducted nearly 1000 civil ceremonies, said very few.
‘‘They want sincere and meaningful vows and they don’t want this sort of rubbish,’’ she said.
For many religions, marriage is a civil ceremony.
For Muslims, marriage is a civil contract and the bride and groom need only say they will ‘‘marry’’ the other, and then must ‘‘accept’’ each other.
Buddhists also regard marriage as a secular matter.
Judaism doesn’t have vows, but the groom does undertake to provide the wife with ‘‘food, clothing and sex’’ in a contract called the Ketubah. Traditionally written in Aramaic and Hebrew, the Ketubah originated when women had no legal rights or protection in any culture.
The Catholic Church’s vows are free of sexist language.
The Uniting Church goes further, warning about the traditional custom of ‘‘giving away’’ the bride.
It believes this practice is ‘‘unhelpful’’ because it ‘‘keeps alive the view that a woman is the property of her father until in marriage she becomes the property of her husband.’’
The Uniting Church does offer a vow that could appeal to pessimists: ‘‘I will love you when it is easy and when it is difficult. I will love you when I love you and when I hate you. I will love you when love is hidden by my jealousy, spite and pettiness. Please go on loving me and trusting me.’’