Spinoff from Etiquette thread - who paid and what were the requirements?

Liatris2010

We wanted a casual BBQ is a park wedding. My mom wanted a fancier multi-course meal wedding. Mom offered to pay $$ so that we could have the type of wedding she wanted. We agreed, had a lovely multi-course sit down meal and invited maybe 10 people we would not have otherwise because she asked and she paid for about two-thirds of the wedding. We involved her in choosing the venue, and it was drama free. I appreciate that she put her money where her mouth was after saying that we were planning was "too casual" for a wedding. While I disagree that a BBQ in a park is too casual, I am grateful that we were able to have such a nice reception.

pinupbride6189

My mom and dad very generously offered to help with the wedding. My dad said that if we picked a particular venue (they offer a REALLY great package deal) that he would pay for the whole thing.  FI and I happened to love the venue after seeing it and determining that it wasn't run by mutant roach people, so we picked it. The venue includes ceremony site plus a back up if the weather is unpleasant, ceremony music, reception hall, catering, cake, my hair and make up, some decorations, a horse drawn carriage, a 12 room lodge for the wedding party...Just a ton of stuff. I think he and my mom are splitting that cost, as she wanted to contribute as well (they're divorced). Dad also offered to pay for the DJ and Photographer (he apparently wasn't kidding when he said the whole thing) and my mom wants to pay for the florist. My grandmother gave me a gift to go towards my centerpieces, which was very kind of her. All of this came with no strings (other than the initial venue pick) with the exception of my grandmother's gift, in that I'd told her want I wanted, and she thought it was cool and wanted her money to go towards that.

I bought my dress, and we'll be covering FI's attire as well. We're taking care of invitations and other paper, decor, toasting flutes, etc. All the things that my dad wouldn't think of, and I'm certainly not going to bring up to him. 

FI's parent's are covering the rehearsal dinner, which I expected to run into a lot more problems with, but has actually gone quite well.  We actually looked at a couple of different places together and agreed on our favorite, etc. I'm leaving that mostly in her hands as I don't really care that much as long as everyone is properly hosted.

I'm very lucky that my family has been as gracious as they have been, and don't for a minute take it for granted.

AddieCake

My dad paid for everything but the rehearsal dinner, and all he asked was that salmon be one of the meal choices.

knottie9c5ed33df4bbd226

My parents are paying for our entire wedding-my dad is inviting a few people I don't think are necessary but it's not upsetting to me. My mom has a few things she specifically wants; she insisted on flowers in the bathrooms at the venue and she insisted there were no greens or filler flowers. Again, I didn't really mind. She didn't want me to have menus on the table but I won that argument. She also for some reason really wants us to do signature drinks. She just found out about them and is excited. If these small things make her happy and don't make my FI and I unhappy then I don't mind.

ETA: I totally just remembered that after our first venue visit, my mom REALLY wanted a bananas foster station at our reception. It was an extra $11 a person and it was a huge argument because I didn't think it was needed. It's become a bit of a joke now but for a few months she was really adamant about it. She finally saw the light. 

Edited again: Someone else's post reminded me, my dad does keep texting me the most random songs that the DJ "just has to play". I think it's cute so I've been adding them to our song list.

melbenso

MIL paid for our invitations and our rehearsal dinner.  She had no requirements - she just wanted to see which invitation we picked.  I checked in with her on who to invite to the rehearsal dinner (just wedding party or family members too) and the food selections, but she pretty much green lighted everything I asked about.

My parents gave us a very generous monetary wedding gift when we got engaged (so we could spend it on the wedding if we wanted too) and also gave us money so that we could upgrade our bar from beer and wine only to include liquor for our guests.  They had no requirements whatsoever - other than wanting liquor served at the reception, obviously.  But my mom kept encouraging me to rent chair covers because she didn't like the chairs for the reception.  Since they gave us so much and asked for so little, I did it, even though I could have cared less about the chair covers.