Little bit of back story is that we are getting married next August and we always assumed we would pay for our wedding ourselves. We never expected anything from my parents as they had always said they would rather help us with a deposit for a house rather than a wedding and his parents spend lots of money on his children (children with an ex) so we never expected anything from them either.
So, we've done some initial plans and worked out how much it would cost and worked out how we would afford it and it was all hunky dorey. Then i made some life desicions and decided that i wanted to go to medical school next September (2011, 2 weeks after my wedding!) so there is now something else we need to save for so we've discussed it and said that if we need to we'll cut stuff out the wedding.
A couple of weeks ago there was a wedding fare at our venue so we asked his parents and some of the wedding party if they'd like to come and see the venue and so they all came. We had a wander round, everyone loved it and we went for a drink in the bar where they asked us about the wedding plans such as food, timings etc etc. So we told them that we'd like to do all the bells and whistles but if we couldn't afford some stuff this might change depending on what we can save etc etc but we were cool with this because if i go to medical school, obviously it's an investment in the future.
A few days later his mum called him and said they'd like to give us £2000 (just over a quarter of the budget) towards our wedding because they didn't want to see us cut stuff that we wanted. This is absolutely wonderful of them and has really lifted some money worries and of course FI thanked them profusly on the phone but i want to thank them myself.
Thing is i'm not so good thinking of what to say face to face and tbh i think it would embarras them too but i really want to show them how much we appreciate their contribution. I thought about writing them a thank you letter but i wrote one of those when they gave us some vouchers as an engagement present and i dont want a £100 tesco voucher towards a new appliance we needed to be thanked in the same way a £2000 contribution to a wedding.
Flowers die, some presents can be tacky, a note just isn't enough, taking them out for a meal is an option but i think they would prefer something that they can enjoy and know we appreciate them without us grovelling in front of them.
Any ideas??