Chiffon Bridesmaid Dresses , a Vietnam vet, about the need for more veterans in Congress.She has my vote, Jackson said.It don t matter about your sex or gender.Kristin came here saying it was time for a change, and I think more people will be willing to listen to her nowadaysAfter the Shaws finished their yard work, the family headed inside to learn more about the intriguing candidate who had shown up in their driveway.It took one Google search for Lawrence to realize something he had missed.Lawrence is a religious man.His church isn t open to LGBT issues.but Yvette insisted on keeping the one on her gold Lexus.For Yvette, this is personal.One of her daughters from a previous marriage, she said, is thinking about getting gender-reassignment surgery herself.I think people just need to be true to themselves, she said a few days later.She rubbed her hand along the bumper sticker, smoothing it out.Kristin came here saying it was time for a change, and I think more people will be willing to listen to her nowadays, she said.I m going to support her 100 per cent.When Scott Oeth was thinking about proposing to his girlfriend, Linda Hardin, he knew the stats.The average wedding costs in 2014, according to popular website TheKnot.That s when the Minneapolis financial planner thought, No way.Lucky for him, his bride-to-be was thinking exactly the same thing.So last year the couple arranged for a courthouse wedding, a celebratory dinner at their favorite steak house, covered as a gift by his new in-laws, and a backyard BBQ reception later in the summer for 100 guests.Get over that reticence and have a money conversationOeth, 43, says he wouldn t change a thing.It was all wonderful, and we had such a great time Knee-Length bridesmaid-dresses , he says.I don t think that most people who spend tens of thousands on traditional weddings could say the same.More newlyweds seem to be thinking like Scott Oeth and Linda Hardin.Courthouse and city hall ceremonies now account for between 3 and 4 per cent of marriages, up from 2-3 per cent a couple of years ago, according to industry resource The Wedding Report.Financially speaking, toned-down weddings make a ton of sense.After all, think of all the other places newlyweds could spend that money to get their marriage started on the right financial foot, Oeth says.Fully funding retirement savings plans for both spouses.Paying off high-interest credit cards.Getting rid of student debt.Starting a savings plan for young children.Saving up for a down payment on a first home.RelatedWedding bell blues: Four money-saving tips for bridesmaids and groomsmenHow much should you spend on a wedding gift and how should you give it?Expensive weddings are like a subprime mortgage crisis of the heart, says Laurie Essig, associate professor at Vermont s Middlebury College and Love, Inc.columnist for the magazine Psychology Today.Noting that most young people have student loans, Essig says, It just doesn t make financial sense to be taking out even more debt to have a lavish wedding.Those typical expenses, according to TheKnot.In many urban centres, costs can be much higher than those national averages.In this still-fragile financial climate, some women might have chosen to hide the Chanel shopping bag from their budget-conscious better halves.With mortgages to pay and family holidays to save up for, it’s still not quite the done thing to blow half your bonus on something as frivolous as a pair of shoes (in this case a seductively glistening pair of Chanel ballet pumps in a classic French navy that I’d coveted for months), even if the bonus is something you have worked your socks off for.But, instead of surreptitiously stuffing the shoes in the back of the wardrobe, I proudly displayed the results of my splurge to my husband, safe in the knowledge that he’d approve.After all, he’s the one who decided how much my bonus should be and he’s the one who paid it.This year, as for almost all of the five years we’ve been married, I’m the grateful recipient of a wife bonus and proud of it.who, while not going out to work in an office or for a company Chiffon bridesmaid Dresses , still receive a bonus from their husband at the end of the financial year as a sign of appreciation for services rendered.But while the Park Avenue primates have been pilloried for supposedly receiving a cash reward based on how well they have balanced the domestic books, enhanced their husbands’ careers by networking adeptly and aggressively, and kept them satisfied socially and sexually, I believe that receiving a bonus for being a good wife is nothing to be ashamed of.The concept of a gift for being a good little wife seemed to assault all my feminist senses, implying a certain level of sinister financial controlRather than being a depressing step back for feminism, I’m proud that my husband appreciates that, at the age of 32, by staying at home with our 19-month-old daughter, I’m working just as hard as he is, and he is prepared to put his money where his mouth is.Like most women, I didn’t set out intending to take money off my husband.He earned a lot more than me, working in the oil industry when we first met when I was 24.Still, I insisted that we split everything down the middle, including the rent when we moved in together.By the time we got married three years later, I had built up a successful career as a broker in the City and enjoyed having my own money and being able to spend it as I liked, particularly come bonus time, which could run into thousands if it had been a good year.But about a year after we were married, my husband was offered a promotion in Australia.The opportunity was too good for him to turn down, so I gave up my job to go with him.Although some might argue that I could have still pursued my career, it didn’t make sense to insist on putting my work first on this occasion, as we wanted to start a family.We immediately started trying, and two years later our daughter was born.It was during this time that I first heard about the concept of a wife bonus.I met quite a few women .