Is it obligatory to pay the price of the wedding dress after the engagement is broken, knowing that the fiancé refuses to take it back and demands its price, and that we have incurred other losses in special preparations?

What the suitor offers to his fiancée before the marriage contract may be part of the Mahr (dowry) or a gift, and this is determined by explicit statement or by custom.

- If the dress was part of the Mahr, it returns to the suitor upon the breaking of the engagement, because the Mahr is not due except upon the signing of the marriage contract.

- If it was a gift, the more preponderant opinion is that if the engagement was broken by the suitor, he is not entitled to reclaim it. However, if it was broken by the fiancée, he has the right to demand its return, because a gift is given with the expectation of a return, which is marriage.

Based on this, if the engagement was broken due to the suitor, you are not obliged to return the dress. But if the engagement was broken by you, while he still desired to marry, you are obliged to return the gifts he requests.