I am the Mother of the Groom in my sons upcoming wedding in 4 months. I very much like his bride, but she and I are having some disagreements about the guest list. Nothing unpleasant thus far, but I would like to keep it that way.
The budget breakdown is this: $10,000 total budget, $2000 from my Husband and myself, $2000 from brides parents, and the remaining $6000 from the bride and groom. The anticipated guest list was about 50 people, but with our friends that we would like to invite, that number grew a bit. Of course we have offered to pay for those extra guests on top of the money we had already offered. Before the bride sent out the Save the Date's, she was lenient with the guest list, but in the last few weeks she has gradually stopped "letting" me invite friends. It is now at the point where she will not even allow me to invite family friends of ours who invited us to their daughters wedding, so now I'm completely humiliated and don't know what to say to that family. She flat out told me when I asked about them, "No, I'm sorry, I have to put my foot down, no more!" It is not because of capacity, there is plenty more room for guests, and like I've said, it's not because of money. She is just being controlling.
I feel badly that my sons bride has taken this turn, and I am slightly concerned that this behavior could be something that isn't even new, but rather she has been hiding it from us.