Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise tied the knot in front of 150 guests in a lavish Italian castle ceremony 2006. They split five years later

"There is some reason to believe that having more witnesses at a wedding may actually strengthen marital quality," the team wrote. "According to the work of psychologist Charles Kiesler (Kiesler, 1971), commitment is strengthened when it is publicly declared because individuals strive to maintain consistency between what they say and what they do. We try to keep our present attitudes and behaviors in line with our past conduct.

"The desire for consistency is likely enhanced by public expressions of intention. Social scientist Paul Rosenblatt applied this idea specifically to marriage (Rosenblatt, 1977). He theorized that, early in a marriage, marital stability and commitment would be positively associated with the ceremonial effort and public nature of a couple’s wedding. Rosenblatt specifically suggested that holding a big wedding with many witnesses would lead to a stronger desire - or even need - to follow through on the commitment. Our findings suggest that he may have been right."

When analysing the data, the research team took into account potential variables such as participants' income, race, gender and sense of religion. But they didn't make a note of factors such as the price of the wedding or parental income.

This latter factor, in particular, could influence the subsequent quality of a marriage; if a wedding was more expensive or parents were unable to ease the financial burden of it, the subsequent stress could easily cause problems in a relationship.

The bigger the wedding, the happier the marriage study finds