In our third and last segment of the Wedding Vows series, we take a further look at the careers of women who marry men in the financial industry and the most popular professional pairings of couples. But first, a Research Scientist from Ann Arbor, MI responds to our investment banker/teacher hypothesis:

"There's nothing new about this pattern! It reflects the fundamental reality that rich hypercompetitive people aren't very good helpmates, and that poor hyperthoughtful people aren't very good providers. Only a masochistic investment banker would marry another one, ditto teachers."

Well Mr. Michigan, welcome to New York — the land of sado-masochism and spawn of Satan's coupling. Results after the jump.

As shown in the chart of Straight Husband Professions, finance jobs represent the highest proportion, 22%, of grooms in the NYT Wedding Vows section with lawyers a distant second at 12%. Are the women these Wall Streeters marry providers or helpmates? The answer: both.

The highest proportions of these wives are evenly matched between fellow investment bankers, bond traders, etc. (21%) and teachers (20%). Apparently money does love money after all, though we assume the dual i-banker couples are heavily into bondage and carrying tea baggage. Overall, the Top Professional Pairings of Straight Couples (in order of Husband-Wife) are:

Law-Law
Finance-Finance
Finance-Education
Finance-Ad/Mrkt/Sales
Education-Education
Arts-Arts

There must be love in the office and by the water cooler with nearly 30% of couples (27% of straights, 33% of gays) marrying within their own field. There you have it: industry incest and social climbing is the Manhattan way, as exemplified in the Vows section. When going about your dating rituals, never forget that i-bankers love i-bankers and teachers. Now go out there and get that ring! Domesticate before it's too late!