My fiance and I were recently engaged and are planning a June wedding. I'm a 21 year old graduate student, and he is a 21 year old nightclub manager. We live together in New Orleans, which is about 1,000 miles away from my parents house in Ohio. I moved out shortly after I turned 18 and have been supporting myself financially ever since. I'm very close with my mother, and she and I have been on the phone nearly every day discussing all of the wedding details, but she has not mentioned contributing once. This is extremely frustrating to me, because I do not want to have to ask. My parents were very well off financially for several years, but instead of saving for my education or other expenses they piddled it away on frivolous things. As of right now, they aren't struggling but they well off either. I am paying for my own education, as well as my rent, utilities, food, etc. This has put me in an extremely difficult position, as I am required to work full time while going to school in order to pay my bills. I'll be about 80K in debt by the time I get out of school next year, and the banks have stopped giving me money because I no longer have a credit-worthy cosigner (my parents are in serious credit card debt and refinanced twice in the past year)I am so frustrated. I almost feel guilty to ask, as I've never asked them for help with anything. But I feel like this is something that they should have brought up, instead of ignoring it and pretending that it will go away. So do I ask, or do we foot the bill ourselves? My fiance and I recently moved in together, so that has allowed for us to start saving, so we could do it. But it will be hard.