Health Minister Anutin is a wealthy politician who wants to be PM. His construction company make huge profits from China and he is in debt to them. Basically he is the Donald Trump of Thailand.
I have friends that have married in the past few years and yes they paid. From what I understand the amount is based on the education of the girl and the level of job she has. My friend married a girl with a college degree and working as a flight attendant, he paid $30,000 in gold. He got nothing back. The hard part was all the ceremony. You can not embarrass the family in front of friends..
You should be able to get a job as an English teacher, Thailand has a push to hire a number of teachers now. Also many people get a Volunteer Visa or an education visa to learn Thai.