Re: What comes first…
^ I think she should have thought of it before hand, before increasing the bills before the marriage. I am not sure since the OP didnt tell us much, but looks like she is looking for a pretext pretty much, which is sad. If in any way she is willing to work and husband isnt letting her, fine he should pay. No one, belonging from north america or what, should act like a lazy bum and expect from others (it be the spouse or the siblings) to pay off their bills and debts. After marriage is something else ofcourse, because then wife automatically becomes a responsibility of her husband, according to our religion. But even ethics do not allow one to put your burden on the shoulders of your spouse when you were not thoughtful about how you will pay the bills afterwards.
We are just discussing the situations having these two analogies in front of us. There are other factors that matter too, like how is the husband wife relationship. If they are doing well, I do not see any reason the husband should nt pay off his wife’s bills anyway. Every husband would, and they do. But to make is sound like an obligation, sounds a little tacky to me.
You made way too many assumptions in your post mirage.
For all we know it could be student loans and not random bills she decided to keep for her husband to pay. Student loans are big and take a long time to pay off. I agree with Sehrysh it should have been discussed before.