Spending huge sums on wedding ceremonies to make your big day more memorable isn't uncommon in this day and age. In fact, couples even go to the extent of taking out loans in order to afford their idea of the dream wedding. While many of us never really thought about the impact of wedding expenditure on marriage, a study revealed that couples who splash too much cash on their wedding events are more likely to part ways. In a 2014 study “A Diamond is Forever' and Other Fairy Tales: The Relationship between Wedding Expenses and Marriage Duration”, economists surveyed more than 3,000 people in the United States and evaluated the relationship between their wedding expenditure and marriage duration. The survey, done by economics professors, showed that marriage duration was “inversely associated with spending on the engagement ring and wedding ceremony”.
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It was observed that the couple who buys an expensive engagement ring has a higher chance of getting divorced. Upon surveying the men, the study found that there was a 1.3 times greater risk of divorce if the engagement ring cost between $2,000 (approximately Rs 1.6 lakh) and $4,000 (approximately Rs 3.3 lakh) as compared to when the ring had a price tag in the range of $500 (approximately Rs 41,000) to $2,000 (Rs 1.6 lakh). When it came to spending on ceremonies, the study noted that low-key weddings resulted in more successful marriages as compared to extravagant ones. It highlighted that weddings in which the expenditure was less than $1,000 (approx. Rs 82,000) were linked to lower chances of divorce while weddings that cost over $20,000 (Rs 16.5 lakh) increased the risk of separation.
The study, however, did not clarify why exactly spending more on weddings could lead to unstable marriages. If we had to wager a guess, we'd say that the aspects of setting up a stable monetary foundation for marriage and living within one's means gets eroded as wedding spending increases. As finances are one of the greatest reasons for conflict in a relationship, it can even lead to a breakdown of a marriage. Besides the risks associated with huge wedding bills, the study suggested that it is wiser to spend more on honeymoons. The survey showed that vacation after tying the knot is “significantly associated with a lower hazard of divorce".
Source: Social Science Research Network
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