Billions Spent On Failed Marriages Every Year

About £2.8bn could be spent each year on weddings which will ultimately end in divorce, according to Sky News analysis.

Divorce data from the Office Of National Statistics (ONS) released this morning shows that in 2013 there were 126,616 divorces in the UK.

Although this is a fall of 2.9% compared with 2012, given that the average wedding now costs more than £20,000 and nearly half of all weddings end in divorce it means billions of pounds are spent on wedding celebrations where the marriage will not go the distance.

The jury is out on whether an expensive wedding will lead to a long lasting marriage, but research from law firm Lloyd Platt & Co suggest that there is a negative relationship between how lavish the wedding is and how long the marriage lasts.

Divorce lawyer, Vanessa Lloyd Platt, told Sky News: "There is a direct correlation, the bigger, the more over the top the wedding, the more likely the marriage will end quite soon.

"The reason is that parents might vicariously be living through the children with a grandiose wedding. And also the expectations partners have of each other - it's like the huge dream, and people don't really live like that. And it comes crashing down.

"Have a medium sized wedding, but don’t go over the top with trumpets, and huge flowers looking like the hanging gardens of Babylon, it just doesn’t help. The money could’ve gone into a house."

Wedding planner, Liesl Lamare, disagreed somewhat telling Sky News: "It’s not how much you spend on your wedding that determines how happy your marriage will be. What determines a successful marriage boils down to the good foundation of the relationship.

"Think carefully about your wedding budget and spend within your means. Putting yourself in a financially difficult situation is not the best way to enter married life.

"Couples rarely think about divorce when they’re on their wedding planning journey – they live in the moment of committing themselves to that special person through a celebration with their nearest and dearest.

The ONS data indicated that the incidence of divorce was highest among men and women aged between 40 and 44.

Despite lower levels of divorce in 2013 weddings that reach the 15-year milestone have fallen.

For those married in 1968, 20% of marriages had ended in divorce by the 15th wedding anniversary whereas for those married in 1998, almost a third of marriages (32%) had ended by their crystal anniversary.

The ONS data showed that women in their late 20s had the highest divorce rate of all female age groups, with 16.8 females divorcing per thousand married women aged 25 to 29 in 2013. This continues the general pattern seen over the last 20 years.

The average age at divorce increased slightly for both men and women in 2013. The average age for men divorcing was 45.1 years in 2013, rising from 44.7 years in 2012.

For women the average age at divorce was 42.6 years in 2013, increasing from 42.2 years in 2012.

Women tend to be younger when they get divorced which can partly be explained by the fact that they are younger when they get married.

The most recent marriages statistics available show that the average age for men marrying in 2012 was 36.5 years compared with 34 for women.

The average duration of marriage for divorces granted in 2013 was 11.7 years, increasing from 11.5 in 2012 and 11.3 in 2003.

In 2013, 19% of men and women divorcing had their previous marriage end in divorce. These percentages have almost doubled since 1980 when the comparable figures were just 10%.