Did Dua Lipa Use Astrology to Plan Her Wedding? Here’s Why the Internet Thinks So

Astrology is becoming the latest addition to the wedding planning checklist, promising meaning, alignment and the “perfect” date. And after internet sleuths speculated that Dua Lipa may have timed her recent wedding by the stars—or, more specifically, the Blue Moon—the trend has never felt more mainstream. But as couples increasingly look to the cosmos for answers, Mischa Smith asks: is this a genuine ritual, or simply another way to optimise an already over-engineered day?

When Dua Lipa married Callum Turner in Marylebone Town Hall on Sunday, astrology accounts wasted no time analysing the date. Within hours, social media was awash with theories that the singer may have used electional astrology—the practice of choosing auspicious moments for major life events—to plan her wedding. There is no evidence that she did, but the speed with which the internet began searching for signs of cosmic timing was revealing. Astrology has become so culturally embedded that major milestones are now regularly interpreted through an astrological lens.

That shift extends far beyond celebrity weddings, too. Once considered a niche spiritual practice, astrology is increasingly being folded into the wedding planning process itself. Couples are consulting astrologers to choose dates, times and even locations for their ceremonies, hoping to imbue the day with meaning, alignment and, perhaps, a little extra luck. In an era of rising costs, endless choice and Pinterest-perfect expectations, the promise of cosmic certainty can be difficult to resist.

When one couple began planning their Ibizan wedding, they weren’t just thinking about the venue or the guest list; they were thinking about the energy. Working with astrologer Clarisse Monahan, they set out to create what Monahan describes as “a raucous wedding”, building the day around “a lot of fire energy” and an emphasis on excess. Set on a Balearic island already synonymous with indulgence—and with one of the couple’s Jupiter lines coursing straight through it—the wedding chart (an astrological “birth chart” for a marriage, not to be confused with the more traditional wedding seating chart) leaned into that atmosphere. “Very showy and over the top”, recalls Monahan, with the focus less on tradition or stability, but instead on spectacle and pleasure.

Where ceremonies were once defined by religion, and more recently by aesthetics—the perfect tablescape, photo moments, those all-too-ubiquitous namesake cocktails—they are now being treated as moments that need to carry cosmic meaning. Weddings today don’t just have to look good; they have to feel good, too.

For a growing number of couples, that feeling is being shaped by astrology. “Couples spend so much on their wedding anyway,” says Monahan. “So it makes sense to want to have the ideal time to do it.” Neda Farr, whose astrology-led relationship reels have racked up 170 million views on TikTok alone, has seen a similar shift: where clients once asked when they might get engaged, they’re now asking when to marry, and how to make sure “nothing is working against them” when they do.

Of course, none of this is entirely new. Astrology has long shaped wedding timing in places like India, where muhurats—auspicious times—are traditionally used to determine when a couple should marry. What’s changed is the framing, especially for Western couples who are navigating an ecosystem of abundant choice, pressure and personalisation rather than utilising inherited rituals.

If astrology is finding new relevance in weddings, it’s not happening in a vacuum. The modern wedding is an unusually high-stakes event: financially costly and often logistically fraught. Couples are expected not only to host, but to produce something memorable: an experience that feels seamless, unique, and increasingly, shareable. When a single day can cost tens of thousands—the average UK wedding costs £21,990—the pressure for it to be meaningful, if not perfect, is difficult to ignore.

At the same time, personalisation has become its own form of cultural currency. To choose well is no longer a private act. Weddings have always functioned as a form of social signalling, a way of demonstrating taste and discernment; yet where once that might have been reserved for the day alone and the guests present, today they live online forever.

Increasingly, weddings are being planned for how they will be seen, shared, and, in some cases, validated by external arbiters of taste. In a culture that rewards individuality, even individuality begins to look formulaic against a backdrop of hyper-curated aesthetics. Astrology, in that context, doesn’t just offer meaning, it offers a way of explaining why this date, why this location.

“I think what people want is an alignment,” says Chani Nicholas, an astrologer and New York Times best-selling author. “Astrology is not about control… it’s about meaning.” To choose a date under “good omens”, she suggests, is less about predicting the future than it is about creating a moment that feels intentional, and, above all, right.

Faced with an overwhelming number of decisions, couples are looking for ways to narrow the field. “A lot of the time, just knowing you’ve picked a good electional (date) gives you a sense of confidence,” says Monahan. “It makes you more thoughtful.” Rather than dictating every detail, astrology becomes a way of approaching those decisions with a degree of certainty, however provisional.

But astrology doesn’t actually give couples control, at least not in the way they might hope. Most arrive at it late in the process, after the major decisions have already been made: the venue booked, the Saturday secured. “Most of the time it’s like, ‘We’re getting married on this day—can you tell me the best time within that?’” says Nicholas. “You’re working within a lot of constraints.”

Then there are the exceptions where astrology doesn’t just guide the wedding, it structures it. Neda describes clients seeking “the perfect step-by-step” timeline: when to schedule beauty treatments, when to shop for a dress, when to get married. Rather than a single auspicious date, the process becomes a carousel of optimised decisions. “There are usually three good windows,” she says, “and one perfect window.” Whether that alignment has any measurable effect is, of course, harder to prove, but its emotional appeal is undeniable.

Astrology’s growing role in weddings is also a product of how widely it now circulates. Once the preserve of specialists, it’s become part of our daily language, delivered through apps like Co–Star and an endless stream of TikTok explainers. “People are learning tidbits of astrology… in slideshow form,” says Neda, often distilled into insights that feel immediate and personal.

That mainstreaming is also clear in how quickly astrology has been absorbed into the wedding industry itself. Sites like The Knot now publish guides to “lucky” wedding dates, while Brides offers zodiac-based advice on the best time of year to marry. Even dating apps are following suit: Tinder has introduced an “astrology mode”, using birth chart data to shape matches. According to insight analysts at TrendHunter, this signals a broader shift towards “hyper-personalised compatibility scoring”, where identity, rather than behaviour, becomes the basis for recommendation.

Taken together, it suggests a shift in how astrology is being used. What was once a reflective practice is increasingly packaged as a service: something you can use to optimise almost every aspect of your life. As Monahan cautions, that can flatten it into something reductive. “People are still reading for their sun sign,” she notes, a shorthand that risks oversimplifying a much more complex system. In that sense, astrology’s rise is not just about belief, but about how it fits into a culture already geared towards personalisation. The promise, then, isn’t just meaning, but a version of it tailored and sold precisely to you.

That desire for an entirely personalised experience reaches a fever pitch when it comes to weddings. Monahan describes working with a bride determined to create a fully Disney-themed wedding: dress, setting, atmosphere and all. To match that vision, the chart was built around Neptune, the planet associated with dreams, fantasy and illusion. “Disney for me is so Neptunian,” she explains, describing how the couple chose a date where those qualities would be most pronounced, with the aim of creating something “ethereal” and immersive.

It’s not Monahan’s typical wedding chart experience, but it is a telling one. In a culture increasingly oriented around individual expression, the pressure to avoid anything that feels ‘cookie cutter’ has intensified. Weddings aren’t only expected to be beautiful; they’re expected to be distinct. Astrology offers that.

For some, the question goes beyond timing altogether. Around a quarter of Neda’s clients, she says, are seeking reassurance that they’re marrying the right person in the first place. “They want to make sure that they’re cosmically aligned with that person they’re marrying,” she explains.

Astrology, of course, doesn’t remove all uncertainty. “You always have to beware—you might get the answer that you don’t want,” says Nicholas. And even the most carefully constructed chart, like the Ibizan wedding engineered for excess, can only help guide the mood, not the outcome. But for an industry increasingly shaped by pressure, cost and expectation, astrology offers something else: the feeling, however fleeting, that the moment has landed exactly where it was meant to.