I have many problems and both my fiance and I are already stressed out about combining our families and cultures. I'm from Chicago, so all of my family is there. He's from New Jersey so all of his family is there. His mom is pretty sick, so I don't know if she could travel outside of New Jersey. His mom has 12 siblings and his father 9. We already did the Muslim Ceremony, but not the reception yet. However, I wanted to do a more catholic ceremony, not in a church or with a priest, but have one our friends as the officient and getting married outside. His family is going to be really upset when we do this. My boyfriend wants to do everything American, but his family will all blame me and be very upset. Both my and his familes judge and gossip a lot. Another problem is with alcohol and we're not supposed to kiss. I was thinking possibly having it in New Jersey and not letting his family pay for it so I can use that my family has to buy plane tickets and pay for a hotel to have more leverage over them to be able to have the ceremony and alcohol. I know it is our wedding, but both of us are being forced to have a huge reception. I was thinking of having all Arabic music and tying in certain traditions, but combining certain Itaian customs, but I'm not sure how to incorporate everything. I know no one is going to be happy, but I don't know the best way to balance out the two cultures, o and I don't want to have two weddings, because I want it to be about our families coming together and it will be way too expensive.