Planning a dream wedding can be a costly endeavor but the good news is the less expensive the wedding, the more likely the marriage is to last.
As bridal magazines and diamond companies continue to espouse the idea that weddings need to be fairytale-esque, researchers have concluded that the opposite is beneficial to marriage durability.
To come to the conclusion, economics professors Andrew Francis-Tan and Hugo M Mialon surveyed 3,000 married people, and found there are certain characteristics that increase the likelihood of divorce.
According to the study , the amount that couples spend on an engagement ring and the ceremony is inversely associated with marriage duration - as is the importance placed on looks.
The professors also found that one other characteristic impacts divorce risk - how important one another's looks were in the decision to marry.
"Specifically, in the sample of men, spending between $2,000 and $4,000 on an engagement ring is associated with 1.3 times greater hazard of divorce as compared to spending between $500 and $2,000," the paper reads.
The same is true for the price of the ceremony - with weddings that cost less than $1,000 showing a significant decrease in the likelihood of divorce and weddings costing more than $20,000 increasing the likelihood by 1.6 times in the sample of women.
"Reporting that one's partner's looks were important in the decision to marry is significantly associated with shorter marriage duration," says Professor Mialon.
(The Independent)