Don’t be Fooled by the Rocks that I Got...

Guest blogger: Sarah Morrell

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According to a study the bigger the bling on your finger, the more likely you are to get divorced later on…the research has raised many a female eyebrow – but girls stay with us, it’s science after all!

Andrew M. Francis and Hugo M. Mialon of Emory University surveyed 3,000 adults in the USA and concluded those who had spent a large amount on their engagement ring or their weddings were more likely to end up divorced. The study aptly titled 'A Diamond is Forever' and Other Fairytales: The Relationship between Wedding Expenses and Marriage Duration" said men who spent between £1,200 & £2,490 on an engagement ring were 1.3 times more likely to end up divorced than their more thrifty counterparts who spent between £311 & £1,200.
Also couples whose weddings cost £12,450 or more were 3.5 times more likely to end up divorced than those spending £3,113 to £6,226. Scary then that according to the Telegraph the average wedding now costs more than £18,000!

So what does all this have to do with online dating?

Well perhaps the reason a whopping 17% of couples who met online marry is that they’re up-front? Online dating allows us to effectively vet people in our search for love, romance and marriage. It quite literally prides itself on being able to find you that special someone based on your search criteria and by taking into account things like our interests, age, hobbies and those all-important beliefs – the things that could be ‘deal breakers’ later on.

So it’s even more imperative that when you’re writing your online profile to be honest – we’re not saying write in capitals ‘I WANT TO GET MARRIED’ but by including your interests, hobbies and beliefs you’ll attract like-minded matches.

So you’ve found ‘the one’, what next...?

Save your hard earned cash! Interestingly spending £6,226 or less on the wedding decreased the chances of divorce, but men don’t blow your three months’ salary just yet as it works both ways and spending too little on an engagement ring can backfire; those spending less than £311 experienced higher rates of divorce.

So when Jennifer Lopez sang, "Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got", she could have been referring to her famous 6.1 carat, $1.2 million diamond ring given to her by then fiancé Ben Affleck – that’s £747,237 to us here in the UK. It didn’t end well and Ben downgraded to a more modest, 4.5 carat diamond when he proposed to Jennifer Garner, rumored to be expecting their 4^th child - so he’s done something right.

Andrew M. Francis and Hugo M. Mialon summed up by saying; "there is little evidence to support the validity of the wedding industry's general message that connects expensive weddings with positive marital outcomes." - we are sure Jordan would agree with them.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not ‘anti-marriage’ but I think a lot of us instinctively dream of the fairy-tale and lose sight of what is important – someone who we can really connect with, who cares about the same things and who we can be happy with.

Oh and ladies if a smaller ring truly means a longer marriage then I implore you to take comfort in that as well as saving money, and possibly your marriage they’ll be less stress for you and your future partner - which makes for the truly important thing, happiness!

Start your search for Mr Right now with Flirtify.co.uk!