On behalf of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Divorce on Monday, October 20, 2014.
When Chelsea Clinton married Marc Mezvinsky, it is believed their wedding cost $5 million. Jay Z is rumored to have spent $5 million on Beyonce’s engagement ring. Does spending more on your wedding reduce the risk of divorce?
Ironically, a new study shows that your marriage’s duration is actually inversely associated with how much you spend on the engagement ring and wedding ceremony. Two economics professors at Emory carried out a study on over 3,000 men and women.
The professors found that men who spent between $2,000 and $4,000 on engagement rings were 1.3 times more likely to get divorced than men who spent between $500 and $2,000 on a ring.
But there’s more to the study too. In sum, the professors found that:
There is little evidence that expensive weddings and the duration of marriages are positively related.
High spending on the engagement ring is inversely related with the length of a marriage among males.
High spending on a wedding is inversely related with marriage length among females
Low spending on a wedding is positively associated with duration among both males and females.
High wedding attendance and having a honeymoon (regardless of how much it cost) are generally positively associated with marriage duration.
The wedding industry has grown to a $50 billion industry. The average American wedding cost is $29,858.
“In 1959, Bride’s recommended that couples set aside two months to prepare for their wedding and published a checklist with 22 tasks for them to complete. By the 1990s, the magazine recommended 12 months for wedding preparation and published a checklist with 44 tasks to complete.”
The study suggests that the close relationship between divorce and your spending on a lavish wedding and engagement ring could be due to the stress on couples from the debt of their wedding day and ring purchase.
According to the study, if you are going to have a wedding, invite as many people as possible, and take a honeymoon. The study confirms that a big wedding attendance and any kind of honeymoon – regardless of cost – was positively associated with the length of a marriage.
The study can be read here.