Couples who spend liberally on their weddings are more likely to get divorced than those who stick to a tight budget, a study has concluded. The survey – which was undertaken by economics professors, Andrew Francis-Tan and Hugo M Mialon – looked at the weddings and marriages of over 3,000 people in the United States.

The study found on the whole that the more you spend on your wedding, the more likely you are to get divorced.

One example of this was related to the amount of money spent on an engagement ring being inversely associated with the duration of the marriage. The more expensive the ring, the more likely the couple will get divorced, particularly if the ring costs over £1,500.

"Specifically, in the sample of men, spending between $2,000 (about £1,500) and $4,000 (£3,000) on an engagement ring is associated with a 1.3 times greater hazard of divorce as compared to spending between $500 (£376) and $2,000 (£1,500)," the paper states.



A similar statistic was found when looking at how much couples spent on the ceremony, with more affordable weddings tending to lead to more successful marriages.

The study found that weddings that cost less than $1,000 (about £760) show a significant decrease in the likelihood of divorce compared with those who spend over $20,000 (£15,000), increasing the likelihood by 1.6 in the sample of women.

However, the study did find that spending money on a honeymoon is worthwhile, as taking a post-wedding trip is "significantly associated with a lower hazard of divorce". So it might be worth cutting back on some of the more expensive wedding-day costs and putting the money towards a lovely holiday instead.

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