RizzoLee wrote:
Well, long story short, the day before our wedding, my fuel pump decided to die.
I drive a 5 year old car, just outside of the warrantee date (go me!).
We take it in, and low and behold my fuel filter is clogged to high heaven with what we understand as dust.
Moral of the story - if you live in a new development, take extra care of your cars! You really don't want the $1,000 bill.

You were charged $1000 just to replace a fuel filter, or was it replacement of the fuel pump caused by a clogged filter?
Fuel pumps rarely die by the 5th year. There may be a higher incidence if it's an American car, but there are a lot of penny-wise pound-foolish motorists who keep driving with their tanks near Empty. People should be filling up when the tank reaches 1/4 because the fuel pump relies on gas to cool it, and when you run the tank to empty, the pump could overheat and thus fail.
Also, don't fill up at a station where the gas trucks are filling the ground. When they fill the ground, the gas stream disrupts small particulate waste in the storage tanks, and your fuel filter has to work harder to filter those particules when you pump it into your car's tank.
Congrats on getting married.