Well, now I'm second-guessing myself...
My parents are paying for everything but the (VERY nice) rehearsal dinner, for which FI's parents are paying. FI's parents have also offered to pay for our honeymoon.
That said, as I was getting input on invitations from Mom, after I told her what the traditional wording is for a church wedding where the bride's parents pay, Mom said FI's parents should be included as well, to make their moral support clear. Without thinking, I threw out some VERY contemporary wording (based on a template I saw while shopping for invitations): "The (bride's surname) and (groom's surname) families..."
To my surprise, BOTH moms went for it. Mom further wordsmithed it into: "The (bride's surname) and (groom's surname) families hope you will join them for the marriage of..."
Mom's thinking was that moral support needs to be part of the picture. Additionally, our families are already close (we dated for years before our engagement), and I personally think this pays a nice tribute to that as well.
But is this too informal? Our wedding is going to be pretty traditional and kind of fancy, and that's the general look and feel of everything so far. Should we walk it back to more traditional language?
Should we downplay FI's parents more since they aren't paying as much?
Or should we blaze a new trail?
"Sell crazy someplace else. We're all stocked up here."