HERE comes the no-fuss bride: more Victorian couples are ditching the church and opting for cheaper and easier registry weddings.

Civil ceremonies and town hall weddings have jumped in the past five years as couples marry without the fanfare or religious rituals.

Of Victorian weddings last year, 63 per cent were performed by civil celebrants. Just 36 per cent of couples preferred the church.

Figures from the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages show more than 17,500 people married at a civil ceremony last year compared with 14,173 in 2004.

Just 9476 people married at a church last year down from 11,117 in 2004.

The number of church weddings dropped from 11,117 in 2004 to just 9476 last year. The number of people marrying at the Victorian Marriage Registry has also jumped to a record 3399 in 2008.

On Tuesday, 10 couples tied the knot at the Old Treasury Building with marriages scheduled in half-hour slots from 10am to 5.30pm.

Ceremonies range in price from $250 to $320 depending on the size of the room, and it usually takes at least six weeks from the booking to get hitched.

Janine Kupfer, 38, married her second husband Marcus at the Spring St landmark on Valentine's Day, with 29 other couples.

"I didn't want all the fuss, that's why I didn't want the church to do it," she said.

"I am not religious and it would be hypocritical to get married in a church when I have never been."

Ms Kupfer paid $330 and said her mother was concerned a registry wedding was cheap and nasty. "It is different to how it was in the old days, there are a lot of misconceptions with the older generations. It is classy and ladies do get dressed up," she said.

Relationships Australia (Victoria) spokeswoman Ingrid Sturmey said the trend away from church weddings was in line with many young people ditching religion.

"The idea of a god blessing their relationship isn't relevant to them," she said.

"People are saying 'it is up to us, we are committing to each other and not to God'."

She said attitudes to marriage had become more relaxed with the commitment ceremonies becoming simpler, cheaper and often after a couple have had children.

The registry ceremony was no longer the poor man's wedding, but the merely the "formal stuff " followed by a huge party afterwards.

Originally published as Church given a miss for wedded bliss