Modern Australian brides, they’re sophisticated, self-sufficient – and support gay marriage.

Aussie brides are older, they prefer to honeymoon in Europe and no longer expect their parents to pay for their weddings.

According to the 2014 Easy Weddings Annual Australia Bridal Survey 2014, the typical Australian bride is 29.2 years old, she overwhelmingly supports gay marriage and she’s willing to splurge on her precious wedding dress.

“Modern brides definitely know what they want on their wedding day and, equally, they know what they don’t want,’’ says Matt Butterworth, Managing Director of Australia’s No.1 wedding destination, EasyWeddings.com.au.

“They want to spend that little bit more on their once-in-a-lifetime wedding gown; they want a romantic European honeymoon, they want lots of friends and family to be with them on their big day – and they’re willing to pay for it themselves.”

“The tradition of having the bride’s parents pay for the entire wedding is a thing of the past, certainly in Australia,” adds Butterworth.

“The vast majority of couples, 49%, are pooling resources with both sets of parents to pay for their wedding, while a whopping 43% of couples are funding their big days entirely by themselves.”

That means 90% of couples are either sharing the cost of the wedding with their parents or paying for it themselves, while less than 3% of Australian weddings are paid for solely by either set of parents.

“Modern newlyweds love to travel with 74% of those taking a honeymoon doing so overseas,’’ says Butterworth who started Easy Weddings, a Telstra Victorian Business of the Year, 14 years ago.

“While nearby destinations such as Fiji and Thailand have always topped our list of favourite places to honeymoon, this year, we’ve seen couples travel further abroad, preferring European destinations such as London, Turkey, Italy and the Greek islands.”

More than 2100 Australian brides responded to the 2014 Easy Weddings’ Annual Australian Bridal Survey, which also showed a significant rise in the budget for a bride’s wedding gown. The average wedding dress spend is up 13.5% to $2,030. It was $1,788 in 2013.

“During the past 12 months, we’ve seen that brides are willing to spend much more on their wedding gowns,’’ says Butterworth.

“While this may be due to the fact that they’re cutting back on other wedding expenses or that the wedding gown is simply a modern bride’s No.1 priority, the fact is gown prices haven’t increased significantly during that period, so we suspect there’s a swing back to buying from local wedding dress suppliers after the last few years where so many brides have experimented with buying gowns off the internet unseen.

“We’ve heard too many stories of brides being stung after buying their wedding gowns off overseas websites and being seriously disappointed with the final product that arrives. The gowns are often roughly sewn, they rarely look like the original picture, they may be the wrong size or, perhaps, the wrong colour – and, sometimes, they just don’t even turn up.

Of course, that’s not always the case, but it is a common scenario and may explain the increased spending on wedding dresses,” he adds.

The survey also confirmed that the average expected wedding costs was $28,131, though most Australian brides end up spending about $36,200* on their big days.

Most respondents (78.83%) believe gay marriage should be legalised while 8.71% do not. 12.46% of respondents said they were still undecided.

Snapshot: The typical Australian bride
Age (29.2 years) | Her groom is 31 years old
Will marry in a civil ceremony (71.7% of respondents up 0.5 per cent from last year, 24% are marrying in a religious ceremony)
Intends to honeymoon overseas (74% of respondents who are taking honeymoons)
Estimated wedding costs ($28,131) | Actual wedding costs (Likely to be around $36,200)
100 wedding guests will attend their big day (Up from 95 last year)
Believes gay marriage should be legalised (78.83% of respondents; 8.71% did not believe in it and 12.46% of respondents were undecided)
She uses specialist wedding websites to plan her wedding (95% of respondents)
Her wedding dress spend is up 13.5% to $2,030 ($1,788 in 2013)
She will be engaged for an average of 20.4 months
She is likely to marry in November, which is now our No.1 month for marriage. It used to be October, which is down 12%.
Blue continues to be most popular wedding theme colour (21.57%).