[michaelt]

Somewhat unexpectedly, [1] which is based on actual university research, reports the opposite: Figure 9 says people who had more guests at their wedding report better marriage outcomes - even after controlling for income, education, race/ethnicity and religiousness.

Of course, if you want to discard the research and stick with your anecdotes, it was partly funded by a charity founded by a guy who believed in 'strong families'.

[1] http://before-i-do.org/

[aidenn0]

You'd probably want to control for wealth to get good data. Marriage duration is correlated with wealth, and wealthy people probably spend more on everything, weddings included.

[edit] nevermind, the the posted link claims the figures are controlled for several factors, including income and education, which both correlate with wealth.