Bigger Weddings A Key to Better Marriages

A new research shows that couples who have bigger weddings are more likely to have successful marriages.

Researchers at the University of Virginia said that their findings showed that those who tied the knot in front of at least 150 people had 52 percent more chances of having long-lasting marriages compared to those who had just 50 or fewer guests.

"Note, however, this finding is not about spending lots of money on a wedding party-it's about having a good number of friends and family in your corner," W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project and a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, said in a press release.

For the study, researchers recruited more than 418 people under the age of 40. They asked participants about their  level of marital happiness, mutual confidences, how well things were going well in the relationship and thoughts of divorce.

The findings showed that people with fewer sexual partners before marriage reported better marital satisfaction compared to those who had more sexual partners.

"More experience may increase one's awareness of alternative partners," researchers wrote in the study. "A strong sense of alternatives is believed to make it harder to maintain commitment to, and satisfaction with, what one already has."

"In what might be called the 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' factor, this study finds that couples who have larger wedding parties are more likely to report high-quality marriages," said Wilcox. "One possibility here is that couples with larger networks of friends and family may have more help, and encouragement, in navigating the challenges of married life."