Me and my fiance are splitting the costs of the wedding. Shouldn't he pay half of the wedding dress cost?

When your in laws got married, that was the tradition, the bride's parents paid for the whole thing. The bride was about 20, usually, and still lived at home. When 2 people who have been out of the family home and on their own for 10-20 years, it is unreasonable to expect their parents to pay for anything more than travel expenses to their wedding, and maybe a gift.

You have the right idea; your fiance has been brain washed by his parents. Call a halt to the wedding planning, if not the engagement, for at least 6 months. Seriously.

With a marriage starting like this, I don't hold out much hope for your future together.

I think you need to stop involving your boyfriend's parents in this discussion and talk about it strictly with him. You start by saying, "I know your parents believe that it's my family's responsibility to pay for the wedding, but that's simply not an option. You and I need to decide together how much we can afford to spend on our own, and plan our wedding according to that budget."

It's going to mean that both of you will make sacrifices - for example, having a few more guests than you would prefer and a few less guests than he would prefer, so that you reach a number that is acceptable to both of you. Compromise is an important part of marriage, and it's time for both of you to start.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.