Background on me & my fiancee -- We both have good, stable jobs and are good, stable people and are over the age of 26. We are planning on contributing toward our wedding and both sets of parents will as well.
We got engaged and if we'd like my mom to contribute anything monetarily to the wedding, she has insisted that it is in our hometown, instead of where we live now (Chicago). The two places are an hour & a half away. She has also insisted on inviting 160 guests of her own although I have expressed a sincere desire for 150-175 person wedding. To be fair, getting married in Chicago is significantly more expensive than most of the surrounding areas but with everyone contributing a little, we could do it.
My challenges are the following
-if I take money from my mom, each decision I make will be an argument with her if it's not the decision she would make
-if I take money from my mom, my wedding will have at least 225 people and will not be in the city I'd like
-if I don't take money from my mom, my fiancee & I will spend more than originally planned and potentially not be able to afford the wedding we'd like to have
-if I don't take money from my mom & do the wedding in the town I'd like, with a guest list I'd like, she won't want to be involved in any part of it
I'd like my mom to be involved but is it worth sacrificing a year's worth of sanity and what I want to make her happy?
Thanks for listening cyberspace.