How to have your first anniversary in four years

Written by Alyson Kreuger

After getting engaged in November, Claire Engstrom, 33, a registered nurse in Atlanta, proposed an idea to her fiancée: Why not get married on Feb. 29? Known as leap day, it is the date added to the end of February every four years to keep the calendar aligned with the seasons.

As Engstrom saw it, there were practical reasons for getting married that day. “We are not big on celebrating Valentine’s Day or doing big things for anniversaries,” she said. “If we got married on a leap year we could do a big celebration every four years, like go on a trip.”

Her fiancée, MK Mullins, a 29-year-old student in Atlanta, was sold.

With little time to plan a large wedding, the couple decided to go to one of the local city halls that conducts group ceremonies twice a day. They will be accompanied by both of their mothers and Engstrom’s father. After the ceremony they will head to Buffalo Wild Wings, a spot the couple goes to regularly.

“It’s just going to be really cool to get married on leap day,” Engstrom said. After all, how many people can say that?

Feb. 29, it turns out, is an appealing wedding date for a number of couples across the United States. According to the wedding website The Knot, the 2024 leap day accounts for more than 37% of the confirmed weekday wedding dates that week. (By comparison, over the past few years, Thursdays in February typically accounted for 6% of weekday wedding dates.) Historically, leap day has been a popular day for couples getting married in Las Vegas as well. In 2020, more than 1,000 couples were married there Feb. 29. In 2016, the number was a little more than 500.

City officials across the country are preparing for a surge in nuptials. The city of Akron, Ohio will hold municipal weddings at the Akron Art Museum instead of the courthouse. San Diego County is allowing walk-in couples to get married that day (usually appointments are required).

Some venues have seen an increased demand for the date, too. Gather Estate, in Mesa, Arizona, has 10 couples on their waitlist. Jonah Villegas, 23, who works in sales, and Belle Poirier, 22, a nanny, have it booked though.

The couple, who lives in Gilbert, Arizona, stumbled upon the date after deciding to marry a full year after their engagement — and on a Thursday, because it would be less expensive. When they realized Feb. 29 was available, they were immediately drawn to it. “It’s going to be a really cool fact for us to have,” Poirier said. (The couple has been getting more pushback for the Thursday wedding than the leap year wedding, she said.)

Some couples said having a “real” anniversary every four years will remind them not to take the occasion for granted.

“Every four years, having a reason to celebrate that’s different from the years in between — that was appealing,” said Ryan Celestina, 42, a mental health counselor in Palm Beach County, Florida. He and his fiancée, Emily Grupp, 31, an ICU nurse, are getting married on leap day at the Pelican Club in Jupiter, Florida.

With fewer anniversaries he feels they can “do something extravagant every four years,” he said.

Justin Sampogna, 35, a radio producer, and Katherine Stewart, 28, a training and organizational development specialist who live in Simi Valley, California, cherish the idea of having an anniversary every four years for another reason: “In four years it will be our first anniversary,” said Stewart, laughing. “It will keep us youthful forever.”

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