If you want to stay married longer, don't splurge on a big wedding.

Spending lavishly on a wedding and an engagement ring are signs a marriage won't last, says a recent study conducted by boffins at Emory University in Georgia, USA.

A new study by economics professors at Emory found the more couples spend on their weddings and engagement rings, the more likely they are to divorce.

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Professors Andrew Francis and Hugo Mialon found men that spent between US$2,000 and US$4,000 on engagement rings were 1.3 times more likely to get divorced than men that spent between US$500 and US$2,000 on a ring.

Cheapskates didn't fare well, either. The study found men that spent US$500 or less on an engagement ring had higher rates of divorce, too.

If a wedding cost over US$20,000, women were 3.5 times more likely to divorce than women that spent between US$5,000 and US$10,000.

The average American wedding costs almost US$30,000 and this seems to be a bad sign for everyone wanting to wed in the USA.

The professors believe the huge expenses on weddings and rings and its relation to divorce rates could be due to the stress couples experience from the debts their wedding day places on them.

The professors said in 1959, couples were advised by the wedding magazine, Brides, to set aside two months to prepare for their wedding with 22 tasks for them to complete.

By the 1990s, Brides recommended 12 months for wedding preparation and published a checklist with 44 tasks to complete.

The study suggests, however, that one vital key to marital bliss is to invite as many people to the big day as possible. Another key is to take a honeymoon.

It found that high wedding attendance and any kind of honeymoon, regardless of cost, was positively associated with the length of a marriage.

The study involved over 3,000 US men and women married to a member of the opposite sex.