My wife is convinced that the trouble with weddings lies in the fact that most women plan them when they are eight years old. At the age of eight, my wife's logic states, the average little girl is engaged in Disney princess mode, a world where flounces and meringue reign supreme and the prince's identity is of secondary importance.

Over the years, most people grow out of that stage, but the ideal wedding remains stuck in early childhood, like a satin-covered mosquito encased in amber. When the little girl grows up and plans her big day, she foists her childhood vision onto a moderately resentful fiancee, who salves his wounds with the tired truism that real men don't like to get involved in wedding planning. Meanwhile, the guests snicker and place bets on how long the marriage will last.

In 2004, when Massachusetts legalized gay marriage, my first prediction was that weddings would, most likely, become a lot more tasteful. After all, while flounces and meringue might have worked for sleeping beauty, they lack a certain sophistication. I assumed that, as weddings went through their next evolution, a fresh perspective would have to develop. Now, four years later, I can't really comment on the full breadth of wedding paraphernalia, but there certainly is ample evidence that gay marriage has led to a serious reconsideration of men's wedding rings. The standard gold or platinum ring, while a powerful reflection of the bonds of matrimony, is also a somewhat trite symbol for a rich emotional relationship. Clearly, the man of today requires something a little more...resplendent.

For lots of couples, a dream wedding involves an exotic location for the nuptials -- maybe a beach, a mountaintop, or a spectacular garden. You don't find these things just anywhere, which is why lots of couples opt for destination weddings.

A destination wedding is simply a getaway wedding. Usually smaller than a typical hometown wedding, everyone travels, often overseas, for the destination wedding. Sounds expensive, huh?

Surprisingly, destination weddings can be a huge money saver -- for the bride and groom. Guests will probably shell out at least three times more to attend one of these weddings than a wedding close to home, so couples who go this route should be sensitive to financial restrictions and accept regrets with no hard feelings.

Everyone knows divorces are expensive. So what better way to fund the divorce proceedings by selling the wedding dress worn by your cheating wife? A Philadelphia area man did just that when he created an eBay listing for his wife's wedding dress.

He put on the wedding dress and had a picture taken of himself in it. He posted the picture online, obscuring his face, and with an auction headline reading: "Selling dress to pay for divorce! Wife cheated." The soon-to-be ex-husband told shoppers that his wife had gastric bypass surgery, got skinny, and started cheating on him. She left him with over $15,000 in credit card debt, and he owes his lawyer $1,700 or the lawyer is quitting.

Bidding on the size 18 dress started at $50, but the bidding isn't going too well. The auction ends Saturday, but as of this writing, the bidding was only up to $94. Sadly, that won't buy him much in the way of help with his divorce. But hopefully, selling the dress will offer the guy a little bit of satisfaction. Divorces are never fun, and this might just help put a little smile on his face.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

It's wedding season and couples across the country are spending all their time planning expensive weddings and honeymoons. That's all well and good, but once you get home, it's time to put the lavish spending aside and figure out a plan for your financial health as a couple.

Here's my five step plan for how newlyweds can get their finances on track right from the start:

First, figure out how you're going to pay the bills (both where the money is going to come from and who will actually do it). It may make sense for one person to take it over (whoever is best at dealing with paperwork) and the other to contribute funds to a joint checking account.

This post is part of a series about real-life signs we're in a recession.

The good news about the recession is that there are bargains to be had for the adventurous shopper. The bad news is that many people are not able to afford them.

Times are tough and the economy is slowing. The National Bureau of Economic Research has not officially pronounced that the U.S. is in a recession -- technically two consecutive quarters of negative Gross Domestic Product Growth. GDP rose 1.9 percent last year and is expected to decline in the first quarter by 0.1%, according to Morgan Stanley.

Yet some economists, including David Wyss of Standard & Poor's, argue that a recession is already in progress. He believes that the economy is half-way through the slowdown, which he expects to be mild as recessions go. "It's still going to hurt," he said in an interview. "Recessions always do."

Indeed, signs of a recession are all around us. People are doing without a full tank of gas. They are watching their pennies at the grocery store. They are learning to do without things that they thought, until recently, they could not do without -- including $10,000 summer camps. Many are watching their homes decrease in value at an alarming rate and foreclosures have hit records.

In WalletPop's Recession Watch series, bloggers documented some of the new trends brought about by the economic slowdown. For example, some young adults are moving in with their grandparents. Businesses of all sizes are merging to save money. Others, such as a karate dojo, are adding quirky new side businesses, such as selling balloons.

Here are some other additional signs of looming recession:

When I was 10 or so, I became an altar boy. There was something about the polished wood of the pews, the smell of incense, the kneeling...even though I got to know every nook and cranny of the church, it never stopped being mysterious for me, and I never stopped loving the feel of hallowed spaces. In fact, when it came time to propose to my girlfriend, I did it in the snow outside a cathedral in Poland while listening to a trumpeter sound out the hours. For me, churches are magical, wonderful places, and I make a point of visiting as many of them as possible.

That having been said, I am not a churchgoer, and neither is my wife. I was touched and honored when she offered to convert to my religion, but I also understood the look of relief in her eyes when I told her that it was unnecessary. While some of my favorite weddings have happened in churches, I wasn't really eager to get married in one. Given that my wife's flesh starts to smoke when it comes into contact with holy water, she also was interested in pursuing other options.

Of course, this put us in kind of a bind. Churches often host weddings, and generally have planners and guides on staff, which makes things a lot easier. Better yet, they are usually attached to social halls or gymnasiums, which provide convenient venues for receptions. In the absence of this easy solution, we decided to get creative.

Talk about unusual and disturbing marketing campaigns! Charmin is doing a promotion in New York City, featuring "Charmin Restrooms." These are "20 clean and comfortable" restrooms in Times Square for the holiday season.

And as part of the promotion.... A couple is going to get married in the Charmin Restroom. Jennifer Cannon will be wearing a wedding gown made of toilet paper when she weds Doy Nicols in the potty.

Procter & Gamble, the maker of Charmin, is paying for the ceremony (how much does it cost to get married in a bathroom anyway?), travel expenses, a hotel room, and a honeymoon for the happy couple.

Corporate sponsorship is one way, I suppose, to cut your wedding costs. But this is just tacky (no matter how soft the toilet roll is!). And also a little bit icky. But congratulations, I guess, to the happy couple. I hope they get a lifetime supply of toilet paper as part of the wedding package.

Forensic accountant Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations through her company, Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners honored Tracy as the 2007 winner of the prestigious Hubbard Award and her first book, Essentials of Corporate Fraud, will be on bookshelves in March 2008.