The average cost for a wedding in America is over $30,000, but there is a better way.
A couple economics professors, Andrew Francis-Tan and Hugo M Mialon, asked 3,000 married couples about how much their wedding cost and what they paid for the engagement ring, and found the most cash spent on the ceremony and bling the lower the marriage duration.
They found the same thing for those who placed a high importance on looks.
“A marriage that is starting off on the first leg of what is so important is how grandiose your wedding can be is a little telling of the things to come,” says top Texas divorce attorney Jim Mueller.
In their report, the professors state: “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.”
“You’re marrying the love of your life – that’s what really matters,” adds Mueller. “It’s about the two of you, not how wonderful it looks to everybody else.”
They found the same thing regarding the ceremony. Weddings that cost under a thousand dollars are far more likely to last then marriages that cost more than $20,000.