The average wedding in America will cost $28,704 in 2008, according to industry watcher The Wedding Report. That's a slight dip from 2007, but the group predicts by 2013, the bill will rise to $33,552. That's way too much for a one day event, no matter how magical, romantic and life changing.

According to the Census Bureau the median age (as of 2004) for a first time bride was 25 and a groom 27. That's way too young to be spending that kind of money on a party. Money is one of the top things couples fight about. You know what's life-changing: starting a marriage with $30,000 of debt.

I got married about three years ago, so I know how easy it is to get swept up in the notion of this once in a lifetime event. We were planning to be engaged for a year, get married in Chicago and only spend what we had saved. Then my now-husband's father got sick, we moved up the wedding to two months and had it in New York, where we live. Our budget went out the window but we still worked hard to keep every expense under control.

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The answer, quite simply, is no.

When looking at the possibility of our government intervening to provide a timely and effective relief strategy for high gas prices, there is virtually nothing, short of shutting down the country, that our government can do. Oh sure, they could suspend the federal gas tax for a while, but that would accomplish nothing. As shown by my Governor Jim Doyle (D-Wis.), if you pull the tax structure off gasoline, they'll just come for that money in some other manner. Wisconsin eliminated its automatic annual gas tax increase, so the good governor simply jacked us up for about 70% higher vehicle registration fees.

The government could attempt to stimulate increased refinery capacity. That might help some, but not for another ten years or so. Besides, our price at the pump is dictated by the demand for crude oil. Refinery capacity represents only a small fraction of the cost detail. Refinery capacity should be increased just as a measure of protection against extreme shortages caused by catastrophe, but as far as lowering your fuel cost in the next couple of years, new refineries mean nothing to you.