Hello everyone, I could realy use some advice. My Fiance's parents are from Egypt, so he is a first generation American, which has led to a lot of cultural difficulties in planning our wedding. We are inviting 200 guests, which is the max my parents can afford, and his parents were given 50 people to invite. They really struggled to understand that 50 meant 50, not 45 + families, but we finally got a list from them a few weeks ago.
However, his father called last week asking if they could have 12 extra invitations to translate into arabic and send to Egypt. They are insisting that it is respectful to invite the entire family and that is the way things are done in Egypt. They have not yet told us how many people "12 invitations" is for but are insisting that none of the people will come from Egypt because they cannot afford it.
My parents can NOT afford to have more than 200 people, and the chapel we are getting married in only seats about 200 people. His parents have insisted that only an invitation will do and that sending an announcement will not do. They swear that none of these people will be able to come, so they don't understand why they can't do this. I keep reading not to overinvite because it can be disaster, so I am not only worried that people will come, but also feel like it is really disrespectful to my parents for them to ask this. Any comments or advice?