In the past, a couple's wedding night was widely considered a marker of the first time they had sex.

These days, the majority of married couples had premarital sex, and many of them are not having sex on their wedding night.

A recent study from British lingerie brand Bluebella found that more than half of married couples don't have sex on their wedding night. The company surveyed 1,000 couples and found that most couples were "too tired or too drunk" to have sex:

"Women found themselves not having sex because they were too tired (the most common answer), followed by wanting to wait for the perfect moment, being drunk or already traveling for their Honeymoon. Men, on the other hand, didn't do it largely because they were too drunk or wanted to carry on partying with their friends."

One-third of couples surveyed reported having sex the morning after their wedding, and one-tenth of the survey participants said they didn't have sex until 48 hours after the wedding day.

"It’s good to see that so many couples are saying 'I don't' to wedding night sex," Bluebella founder Emily Bendell said in a release. "Couples are under so much pressure these days to have a 'perfect day' that it is refreshing that so many are defying expected norms and doing exactly what they want. If that means saving the ‘wedding night’ until they can really enjoy it, then why not?"

Previous research reinforces the idea that people tend to skip sex on their wedding night.

In 2014, U.K. wedding stationary company Paper Shaker interviewed 1,000 newlyweds and found that a quarter of them didn't have sex on the wedding night because they felt too tired and intoxicated to do it, according to The Huffington Post. In light of the survey results, The Stir interviewed a bunch of women about their own wedding night sex stories, and many of them also said that alcohol and exhaustion impacted their desire to have sex that night.

"The first thing we did was climb on the bed (tux and gown still on) and opened all of our cards to count our cash," one woman wrote. "Then, ordered pizza. Even though we had a buffet at the reception, we were still starving. We ate pizza in bed while watching TV. We did NOT consummate our marriage that night. We were way too tired!"

This research indicates societal changes and evolving attitudes on companionship over time. With more couples having sex before marriage, the allure of having sex for the first time on one's wedding night is non-existent for many. More people are also moving in together before they get married, if they marry at all.

[H/T Someecards]