When I first got engaged I promised my fiance that we'd have a small wedding, just close family and friends. Its what I wanted too because I have a lot going on and I thought it would be easier to plan. We started to work through the guest list and I found that there were people we were cutting out that I really wanted to be there on my wedding day. My mother has slowly been adding more and more family members to the list and while I don't object to inviting these family members, its causing the number to far exceed the original number. Everytime my mother adds another group of people I go to my fiance and have to explain to him why. I usually end up telling him that they are my ads so he won't blame my mother and when I argue with my mother I usually argue with her as if I don't want more people so she won't blame my fiance. I even cut back a few friends that I wanted to invite just so I wouldn't have to explain to my fiance why the number increased even more. After I did that I got a note from my mom with a list of friends she wanted to invite that exceeds the number of friends I am now inviting, and I've never even met most of these friends of hers.
My delema is that mother has been really helpful with the wedding planning and I don't have time to do it all by myself or the money to hire a wedding planner. Also, my parents have offered to pay for the reception. Do I have the right to be upset and tell her she can't invite her friends that I've never met when she is doing a lot of the work that I can't get to and paying for the reception? Right now as it stand the guest list is 75% people that she has added and the other 25% my friends, my fiance's friends and his family. How do I explain to her that she needs to cut back without being ungrateful?