by Patrick Gaffney
Many couples spare no expense selecting the perfect wedding ring and planning an elaborate wedding, considering the financial investment to be an outward expression of love and commitment. But will spending more money ensure a more successful marriage? According to research, the answer is no.
Andrew M. Francis and Hugo M. Mialon in “´A Diamond is Forever´ and Other Fairy Tales.” (2014),[ii] used survey data from 3,000 people in the United States who had been married, to compare the association between the amount of money spent on a wedding and the duration of the marriages. Sadly, they found evidence that the length of a marriage was inversely proportional to the money spent on the engagement ring and wedding ceremony.
They found that male respondents reported high-priced wedding rings to be associated with shorter marriages, and female respondents reported relatively high spending on the wedding itself to be linked with shorter marriages.
On the other hand, the researchers found that both men and women reported weddings with lower price tags were associated with longer marriages. In terms of numbers, they found that couples spending less than $1,000 on a wedding to be linked with an 82%–93% decrease in the chances of experiencing “wedding-related debt stress” as compared with couples who spent between $5,000 and $10,000. Perhaps this should not be surprising, as the researchers note that prior literature has linked economic stress with divorce.
Research appears to reflect the reality that in some cases, a lavish, expensive wedding may be more of a status statement than a reflection of relational strength. There is nothing wrong with a beautiful ceremony, as long as the focus is on the couple to be married.
The same rationale applies to the wedding ring. Some couples choose to spare expense and tie the knot with an heirloom passed down through generations; others select inexpensive but meaningful wedding rings where sentimental value outweighs cost. Although here too, there is nothing wrong with an expensive ring if it is an affordable investment in the marriage itself.
The most important part of marriage remains the recognition of the union as a covenant, where the focus is on permanence, not the price tag because true love is priceless.1
1 This blog was taken from: Patrick, Wendy l., Ph.D., How to Plan a Wedding That Predicts a Happy Marriage, Psychology Today, retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-bad-looks-good/201808/how-plan-wedding-predicts-happy-marriage
