A break from China and investment theory this Sunday. What do wedding expenses and the cost of an engagement ring reveal about the likely duration of a marriage?
To try and balance the wedding industry leitmotiv that more is more Andrew Francis-Tan and Hugo M. Mialon, both from Emory University, performed a study in 2014 that decided to find out if that indeed is the case. They surveyed 3,151 people between July and August that year in the United States and the results seem clear.
Potential father’s of brides being told by wedding planners that the marquee just isn’t big enough or nervous swains wondering how much to drop on the little box for the big ask should print out this weeks’ paper in full. It shows a direct inverse relationship between blow-out wedding expenses and the chances of subsequent break up. That’s right; the more you spend on a ring and the party (relative to your resources) the more likely your marriage is to end in failure.
The authors aren’t clear on why this should be the case. They speculate indebtedness causing financial stress, already a proven marriage tester, may have something to do with it. Perhaps also more modest weddings are the norm for people who know each other well? They note in passing that people who said looks mattered to them and people who marry somebody with a very different educational level also tend to have marriages that more often than not don’t work out. A lot of people at your wedding is a good thing and so too is finding time for a honeymoon.
To sum up. The best advice for planning a wedding then is; don’t spend too much, invite a lot of people and try and avoid falling for a him or a bim-bo. Good luck getting many to follow that advice!
Happy Sunday
[The paper in full can be accessed via the following link A Diamond is Forever]