Spending more on a wedding doesn't equal better outcomes.
Though they don't have to be, weddings can be costly affairs. According to The Knot, the average cost of a wedding in 2025 was $33,000. Of course, a wedding can cost as little as $50 for a marriage license and simple courthouse nuptials and go all the way up into the millions for the rich and famous, so an average amount doesn't mean that's what most average people are spending. But that huge range in costs raises the question: Is there any correlation between what couples spend to get married and a longer-lasting marriage?
In 2014, researchers Hugo M. Mialon and Andrew Francis-Tan from Emory University embarked on the first study to determine whether spending a lot of money on a wedding or engagement ring meant a marriage would succeed or fail. The pair wanted to see if the wedding industry was being honest with insinuations that the more money a couple spends, the more likely they are to live "happily ever after."
Does a big wedding mean a better marriage? Photo credit: Canva
“The wedding industry has consistently sought to link wedding spending with long-lasting marriages. This paper is the first to examine this relationship statistically,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers conducted online surveys with more than 3,000 people who have been married at least once and live in the United States. After reviewing the answers to the questionnaire, the researchers learned that spending big bucks on a wedding and engagement ring made a couple more likely to get divorced, writing "marriage duration is inversely associated with spending on the engagement ring and wedding ceremony."
So much for the idea that "Diamonds are a girl's best friend." Thanks a lot, Marilyn!
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According to the data, couples who spent between $2,000 and $4,000 on an engagement ring were approximately 1.3 times more likely to divorce than couples who spent in the $500 to $2,000 range. For wedding ceremonies, $20,000 was the big cut-off. Any more than that was correlated with a 1.6 times increase in divorce likelihood. Remember that this study was conducted in 2014. In 2025, the average cost of a wedding is $13,000 more than that, so clearly, an updated survey is needed.
Conversely, the research found that "relatively low spending on the wedding is positively associated with duration among male and female respondents." Those cheap courthouse weddings that cost almost nothing? Very often, they foreshadow a long-lasting marriage.
The researchers also found that the number of people who attend the wedding matters, too. The questionnaire revealed that “high wedding attendance and having a honeymoon (regardless of how much it cost) are generally positively associated with marriage duration."
Research found that lots of guests—but not lots of money being shelled out— is correlated with better marriage outcomes.Photo credit: Canva
The researchers didn't study why people who splurge on weddings and rings have a greater chance of having to hire divorce lawyers, but they have a few theories.
“It could be that the type of couples who have a … (cheap wedding) are the type that are a perfect match for each other,” Mialon told CNN. “Or it could be that having an inexpensive wedding relieves young couples of financial burdens that may strain their marriage,” he added.
Francis-Tan believes that people who have weddings with a large number of attendees are more successful because they have a lot of support.
“This could be evidence of a community effect, i.e., having more support from friends and family may help the couple to get through the challenges of marriage,” Francis-Tan said. “Or this could be that the type of couples who have a lot of friends and family are also the type that tend not to divorce as much.”
(Interestingly, common sense would indicate that a high guest count naturally drives up the cost of the wedding — so it really comes down to how much you're splurging on food and decor.)
Weddings don't have to be flashy. Photo credit: Canva
Could it also be that people who put a big emphasis on a flashy wedding and jewelry tend to be a bit more materialistic? It makes sense that couples that are really into keeping up appearances may not have their priorities straight when it comes to building a loving relationship.
Of course, there are many, many factors that go into a long, happy, and successful marriage. And don't forget that not all marriages that last are happy. Spending big on a fancy engagement ring or splurging for the chocolate fountain at the wedding don't spell doom for couples that communicate and work on their relationship. Like anything in life, there are no guarantees either way, but data showing that spending a lot on a wedding doesn't lead to a happy, lasting marriage is certainly good to have.
This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.