Honeymoon over for gay marriage as fewer tie the knot

Stars including Sir Elton John and Matt Lucas led the rush to "marry" their partners in the weeks after gay civil partnerships became legal.

High-profile politicians, including Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw and the shadow leader of the Commons Alan Duncan, as well as television presenter Clare Balding, followed suit.

But three and a half years on, the honeymoon appears to be over.

The number of ceremonies registered in London plummeted 18 per cent last year, the third full year that unions were permitted, following a fall of nearly 50 per cent in 2007.

In London 1,729 gay couples entered into partnerships last year compared with 2,110 in 2007, according to the Office for National Statistics. The sustained slump in gay weddings is mirrored nationwide.

Gay community leaders said the fall was a "normalising process" after the initial surge in demand for ceremonies from couples who had been together for years.

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: "After civil partnerships were legislated there was a huge surge of older couples who had been together for decades who wished to take advantage of the legal recognition.

"Now we've settled into a pattern of civil partnership take-up which reflects people who have recently fallen in love. But just like younger generations of heterosexual couples who often prefer to cohabit, young gay and lesbian couples aren't so concerned about formalising the legal status of their relationship."

Westminster has retained its position as the most popular place in Britain for gay weddings, with 282 last year. Kensington and Chelsea and Islington were also in the top five, registering 147 and 140.

Little Britain comedian Matt Lucas had the first celebrity gay "divorce" in October last year, when he ended his relationship with television producer Kevin McGee. The couple married in 2006.

The Government introduced civil partnerships in December 2005. Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish had a civil ceremony on the first day they became legal in England.

Heterosexual marriages in England and Wales fell by 3.3 per cent in 2007 to 231,450, the lowest since 1895.