It was John Tesh delivering the factoid. (Who knew he did radio?)
I thought about my own personal experiences and seems like a lot of the big giant weddings I’ve attended have ended in divorce, but so have a lot of the modest ones. Maybe it’s just the big ones that stand out, so the divorces do too? I don’t know.
But who am I to argue with “studies”?
I’d have to say, though, among my friends and family, divorce is running around 50%.
When I was a kid I only knew of 2 divorces.
My Uncle Ernie, and a friend who lived in my apartment building. That was it.
The more you spend on an engagement ring and wedding ceremony, the shorter the marriage, according to a study released last year by Andrew Francis and Hugo Mialon, professors in the Department of Economics at Emory University in Atlanta. They examined the association between wedding spending and marriage duration using data from a survey of over 3,000 people in the U.S. who got married.
I’ve observed that when people are more interested in getting married than being married, there are more kinks to work out in the long run. If there is a long run.
Priorities are very revealing, and I despise the cultural hysteria and narcissism promoted by TV and print media. It’s supposed to be a celebration recognizing a union. Not a contest for quickest bankruptcy and most youtube-worthy brawls.
Let’s start with getting married, then having children, and work from there. There’s only room for improvement, because it surely can’t get much worse.
My first marriage was in front of a justice of the peace, reception at McDs, and honeymoon in a tent.
6 years! But it should have only been 5! I will spare all the gory divorce details.
Second marriage done right, big church wedding & reception with family & friends, honeymoon for a week on the northeast coast, just celebrated 20 years and going strong.
Rosalind, You romantic you.
my wedding cost my in-laws about $250, including the cake & the invitations, not including my brides hair-doo, which I paid for .. & the tuxes me & my Best Man paid for ourselves
my son’s wedding cost nothing, other than the bride’s gown & the fee for the JOP
my daughter’s wedding, in which I footed the bill, in which I was in hock for over 15 years .., which was more than the marriage lasted …. cost a fortune .. oh, but the glorious memories … in which we can no longer discuss in family gatherings
I begged her & her future ‘husband’ to just take the money & build a future, forget the fancy marriage & run … nope … had to have the full-blown wedding .. all the flowers, all the church wedding, all the expensive reception, cake, photographer, videographer, limo’s, chauffeurs, all the friends, close friends, near friends, friends of friends, occasional friends, occasionals, occasional aquantenances, & particular people that were on the ‘hate list’, all the relatives, all the in-laws, all the out-laws
… I’m still married to the girl I still love, after 45 years. my son is still married to his albatross … my daughter is on her second marriage … oh, happy bank account… 😛
Almost all of my friends in the 70’s lived with their divorced mom. My parents had no clue about what hell we teenagers raised on sleepovers while somebody’s mom was out looking for Mr. Goodbar until 2 AM at the disco.
Because they’re still trying to pay the ceremony bills. lol
Too often God is forgotten to be invited to the wedding, the wedding bed and the home.
DIY weddings are great! [Don’t get me started, I love arts and crafts. lol]
Make your own invites and decorations, make your own dress, or just get a nice party dress (not a hoochie dress) at JC Penneys or where ever that you can wear again. Guys always have that one suit they use for special occasions… Hor’s deurves instead of fancy meals, you know, that kinda stuff. Have everyone snap pics/ videos of the wedding and email them to you. Pass around a tip jar, or ask for gift certificates (credit card types). No fuss, no muss. Well, maybe a little muss.
Save the money for a nice ring and the honeymoon.
HTH do you spell horse divers?
hors d’oeuvres. There you go. lol
Last wedding I attended will be the last wedding I ever attend.
It was an American girl wedding a supposedly Americanized Korean. It was a Christian-ish affair but the Korean preacher kept railing on about how the wife was to SUBMIT. Over and over again.
And then they did a traditional Korean wedding with the prostrate bowing and scraping, begging for favor. It totally wigged me out. And pissed me off.
Marriage lasted nearly three months.
Wtf were you thinking girl? I figured that much of the ceremony was to appease the elders but a modern American marriage would ensue. Nope.
And they spent enormous money on the whole thing.
I did run up the bar tab a bit but I’m guilty with an excuse your honor.
Sometimes you get married and all of a sudden the REAL person jumps out the bushes from behind you. LOL. You just never know.
@ MJA 🙂 “Sometimes you get married and all of a sudden the REAL person jumps out the bushes from behind you. LOL. You just never know.”
That’s one of the biggest reasons people need to invite God to the wedding. LOL
MJA: “Sometimes you get married and all of a sudden the REAL person jumps out the bushes from behind you.”
I’m so lucky. The REAL guy jumped out BEFORE we got married. WHEW!!
Bye Bye, sucker.
MARRIED OR HAPPY??
Wedding would have been cheap if any of my friends could have come up with an extension ladder that would make it up to her bedroom window at 2 in the morning. Twelve dollar rental still pisses me off. Oh, when first grand child was born? Her parents offered to reimburse for the cost of the ladder.
Had a big old Polish/Italian wedding but we broke even. In those days a ten dollar gift covered the breakfast after the wedding Mass, the evening dinner, the band and open bar for two people. My mom and DH’s mom paid for the 5 tier $70 cake. Those who gave fifteen to twenty dollars REALLY loved us. We were loved more by my invitees than my DH’s invitees. 🙂
Drunk marriages at Las Vegas wedding chapels don’t last forever either.
We got divorced after a decade or so because she wanted to go her separate way are pursue a life of total bitchhood. She’s so successful her own children can’t stand to be around her.
^^ “and”, not “are”
wtf?
Had a relatively simple wedding. Wore my mother’s wedding gown from her wedding to my father in 1956. My husband and I celebrated 25 years in August, and my parents celebrated 60. This is what comes of living in a house that serves the Lord. In so doing, you learn to serve each other as well. It is a beautiful thing and I count my blessings every day.
Met my wife when I was at 15. We had our son at 19. We had our wedding at 21. Most everyone there predicted our demise within 5 years.
I’m 46 now and we’re still married. My son is gone and we just helped our daughter finish moving out.
We like to look at our wedding album and point out to each other which couples predicted our demise that are no longer together.
My marriage cost me a bottle of Irish Whiskey, which i was not old enough to buy. The bottle was only a joke because the Gentlemen who preformed the ceremony in my living room, yes living room, was of Irish decent. He was my best friends uncle, and had known him since i was born, and called him uncle John, even though he was no relation.
My girlfriend (i can’t spell fiance hehe) and i purchased a house together. No, we never lived together. I didn’t make enough money to get a loan on my income. So with her part time work, we qualified. Instead of wasting money on a big wedding, we worked on our house for a month so we could move in. My parents bought us a brand new washer and dryer, among other things since they saved all that money. Her parents bought a bunch of things we needed for the house. Our honeymoon consisted of me taking a whole week off work, and staying home with my new bride. And no, she was not pregnant when we got married, geez.
My parents, her parents, the two of us, and “uncle” John in my living room. That was it. I have been married 25 years, we have 5 children, gone through same things everyone else goes through, along with a career ending injury to myself. We are more in love with each other today, then the day we got married. Funny how a little common sense, and having God in your life will do that for you. And no, I’m not Irish, or Catholic 😉