bride price

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A payment in the form of money, property, or other valuable asset that is made by or on behalf of a prospective husband to the bride's family in certain cultures or societies.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A sum of money or other valuables paid by a bridegroom or on his behalf to the family of the bride, in some cultures.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun money or property given (in some societies) by the bridegroom to the family of his bride