Considering how many extravagant celeb unions end in utter heartbreak (hey, Kim Kardashian!) it probably won’t come as a huge surprise to learn that the more dosh you drop your wedding, the less likely it is to last.
![](https://giphy.com/gifs/angietribecatbs-3o6gDSLFJQFCoVgcjC?utm_source=iframe&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=Embeds&utm_term=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.embedly.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Fsrc%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fgiphy.com%2Fembed%2F3o6gDSLFJQFCoVgcjC%2Ftwitter%2Fiframe&%3Burl=https%3A%2F%2Fgiphy.com%2Fgifs%2Fangietribecatbs-3o6gDSLFJQFCoVgcjC&%3Bimage=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2F3o6gDSLFJQFCoVgcjC%2Fgiphy.gif&%3Bkey=091a55b8b64f45cf89eb441e3ff0b7d8&%3Btype=text%2Fhtml&%3Bcard=1&%3Bschema=giphy)
Economics professors Andrew Francis-Tan and Hugo M Mialon surveyed 3,000 married couples and found two factors that increased the likelihood of a relationship ending in disaster: the price of the ring and ceremony.
“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,” they explained.
![](https://giphy.com/gifs/rihanna-gif-uyWTOgNGGWfks?utm_source=iframe&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=Embeds&utm_term=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.embedly.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Fsrc%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fgiphy.com%2Fembed%2FuyWTOgNGGWfks%2Ftwitter%2Fiframe&%3Burl=https%3A%2F%2Fgiphy.com%2Fgifs%2Frihanna-gif-uyWTOgNGGWfks&%3Bimage=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2FuyWTOgNGGWfks%2Fgiphy.gif&%3Bkey=091a55b8b64f45cf89eb441e3ff0b7d8&%3Btype=text%2Fhtml&%3Bschema=giphy)
Similarly, those couples that spent more than $20,000 on the ceremony itself were found to be 1.6 more likely to divorce than those that forked out less than $1,000.
While the exact reason why isn’t clear, we reckon the study makes a pretty good case for keeping your spending in check.
![](https://giphy.com/gifs/channel9-1jkYrQtUrRoI2Y9Yoa?utm_source=iframe&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=Embeds&utm_term=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.embedly.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Fsrc%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fgiphy.com%2Fembed%2F1jkYrQtUrRoI2Y9Yoa%2Ftwitter%2Fiframe&%3Burl=https%3A%2F%2Fgiphy.com%2Fgifs%2Fchannel9-1jkYrQtUrRoI2Y9Yoa&%3Bimage=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2F1jkYrQtUrRoI2Y9Yoa%2Fgiphy.gif&%3Bkey=091a55b8b64f45cf89eb441e3ff0b7d8&%3Btype=text%2Fhtml&%3Bschema=giphy)
This article originally appeared on Women’s Health Australia