PRICEY WEDDINGS TIED TO HIGHER DIVORCE RISK FOR WOMEN

A study by economists Andrew Francis-Tan and Hugo M. Mialon found that women who spent more than $20,000 on their wedding had a divorce hazard 3.5 times higher than women who spent $5,000 to $10,000, TODAY reported. The researchers surveyed more than 3,000 ever-married people in the United States about their wedding spending and how long their marriages lasted, and they described the results as associations, not proof that a big wedding breaks up a marriage.

The paper, titled “‘A Diamond is Forever’ and Other Fairy Tales: The Relationship between Wedding Expenses and Marriage Duration,” carries a September 15, 2014 date on the Social Science Research Network. The 3.5 figure applies to the women in the study, not to all couples.

“Controlling for a number of demographic and relationship characteristics, we find evidence that marriage duration is inversely associated with spending on the engagement ring and wedding ceremony,” the authors wrote in the abstract.

PBS described the researchers as Emory University economics professors Andrew Francis and Hugo Mialon. The network reported that the people surveyed had been married only once, and it said the results tied higher spending to shorter marriages across income levels.

Nine quoted the study as saying: “Relatively low spending on the wedding is positively associated with duration among male and female respondents.” TODAY reported that spending less than $1,000 on a wedding was associated with a lower chance of divorce.

The engagement ring twist

The ring numbers were messier than the wedding ones. In the study’s bivariate results, spending $8,000 or more on an engagement ring was associated with a lower divorce hazard.

Nine offered one reading of that: very high ring spending could reflect people staying within a comfortable budget rather than stretching a limited one.

At the lower end, TODAY reported that men who spent $2,000 to $4,000 on an engagement ring were 1.3 times more likely to divorce than men who spent $500 to $2,000. Spending less than $500 on a ring was also associated with higher divorce rates.

So the study did not exactly say “spend nothing.” It said the relationship between money and marriage length did not run the way the wedding industry might hope.

Other factors showed up as well. Higher household income, regular religious-service attendance and having a child were associated with lower divorce rates.

Greater age and education differences between spouses were linked to a higher divorce hazard in the study’s full sample. So was reporting that a partner’s looks mattered in the decision to marry.

On the cheaper side of the ledger, having a honeymoon, regardless of cost, was positively associated with marriage duration. High wedding attendance was generally positively associated with marriage duration too, according to the study and TODAY.

The survey also asked about dating length, how people felt about the proposal, guest counts and demographics. It covered U.S. residents, not Australian couples.

The authors did not mince words about the industry. “Our findings provide little evidence to support the validity of the wedding industry’s general message that connects expensive weddings with positive marital outcomes,” they wrote, as quoted by TODAY. The outlet called the work “an indictment of the persuasive powers of the wedding industry.”

The study was later published in the peer-reviewed journal Economic Inquiry on March 10, 2015, in volume 53, issue 4, pages 1919 to 1930.