Lavish and extravagant weddings with massive spreads of food, princess-like gowns and designer rings may be all the rage these days, but a study has revealed you may be better off opting for a smaller celebration of love if you want the marriage to last.
Racking up tens of thousands of dollars on a wedding has slowly become the norm for some newlyweds, with a budget of $2,000 no longer seen as enough to create a perfect day of happiness.
But perhaps it is time to turn back the clock a bit, as recent research suggests certain elements of over expenditure may actually lead to divorce.
In a survey of 3,000 people from across the United States, economics professors Andrew Francis-Tan and Hugo M Mialon found more expensive engagement rings and weddings in general could be linked to marriage duration, and claimed spending less on the celebration was positively associated with a longer marriage for both male and female participants.
“Specifically, in the sample of men, spending between $2,000 (AU $2,695) and $4,000 on an engagement ring is associated with a 1.3 times greater hazard of divorce as compared to spending between $500 and $2,000,” the paper reads.
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“Furthermore, spending $1,000 or less on the wedding is significantly associated with a decrease in the hazard of divorce in the sample of all persons and in the sample of men, and spending $20,000 or more on the wedding is associated with an increase in the hazard of divorce in the sample of women.”
However, it seems saving that money for a honeymoon is a good way to go, with a holiday together apparently having a positive effect on marriage duration.
The trend is undoubtedly hard to break, with some millennials even reportedly crowd-funding for luxury weddings and asking for money instead of gifts to pay to have their perfect day.
Weddings are a special occasion that you want to remember forever, but many argue the extravagantly priced rings and dresses aren’t worth the stress placed on couples who are just starting their life together.
Although with prices rising over time, it isn’t all that shocking that weddings do cost a little more than they used to. One BuzzFeed contributor previously went to the trouble of figuring out exactly what her parents’ 1974 wedding would have cost in today’s money, and it’s pretty shocking.
Meg Keene, the founder and editor-in-chief of A Practical Wedding, discovered that her parents’ wedding, which cost $2,095 in 1974, would come to a total of $10,068 when factoring in inflation. However, when Keene started getting quotes for the exact same itinerary in 2017, she quickly realised that things had changed far more than anyone expected.
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Even taking the cheapest options and including discounts, the wedding would come in at a grand total of $47,286—an increase of 370 per cent on what the equivalent cost in 1974. That’s even more than the average wedding in Australia – at $36,200 – or the US – at $35, 329 – costs today.
The wedding industry has grown massively since then and with so many options out there and the need to have the best day of their life, it is a tricky task to juggle.
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