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Couples that choose to spend more on their weddings are more likely to divorce than those that opt for a more frugal day, a study has revealed.

The research was conducted by economics professors Francis-Tan and Hugo M Mialon who studied the information of 3,000 married or previously married couples located in the United States. They discovered that there was a direct relationship between the amount a couple spent on their wedding and an increased likelihood of them going on to divorce.

In terms of raw figures, couples that spent more than $20,000 on their wedding were 1.6 times more likely to divorce than couples that spent between $5,000 and $10,000. Couples that spent less than $1,000 on their wedding also reported divorce rates that were significantly lower than the national average.

Researchers also observed a correlation between the cost of an engagement ring and the length of the ensuing marriage: the more expensive the ring, the shorter the marriage. Interestingly, though, the opposite was true of honeymoons: the more a couple spent on their post-wedding holiday, the more likely it was that their marriage would last.

On top of this, the study also revealed that the likelihood of a couple divorcing increased significantly when a large number of guests attended their big day. Couples who had more than 200 guests at their wedding were 92% more likely to get divorced when compared to the national average.

Are couples compensating?

The study’s authors put forward several potential explanations for this trend – from increased financial pressure caused by debt resulting in stress and an unhappy marriage to the possibility of more affluent individuals finding the prospect of divorce to be less dauting due to them possessing sufficient resources. The explanation that we at Quickie Divorce believe to be most likely, however, is that the couple in question are more concerned about their wedding than their marriage.

Ultimately, the money a couple spend on a wedding is for their guests rather than for the couple themselves and lavish spending could suggest that they are more concerned with impressing others than they are caring for one another. The fact that the likelihood of a couple divorcing increases when a large number of guests attends their wedding but decreases when they spend more on their honeymoon – with their first holiday as a married couple being more centred on the couple themselves – supports this argument.

What do you think? Why are couples that have more lavish weddings more likely to divorce? Let us know by leaving a comment.

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