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Did your inlaws help with paying for any part of your wedding or reception?

I was actually quite lucky in this respect. My then-fiance and I were planning on having a small, immediate-family only ceremony because my parents are way beyond being able to afford an all-out wedding. And, since I was the only one working at the time, entertaining immediate family was about all I could afford.

Well, it turned out that my in-laws really wanted to have a gala affair, so they ended up footing the bill for most of it. We had the ceremony and reception in the same place, a band, cocktail food (instead of full dinner), and open bar for beer and wine.

Of course, there are a few things I might have done differently, but I am immensely grateful and lucky to have had such a great party with our family and close friends.

That is terrific! Many inlaws don't even foot the rehersal dinner bill!

Susan

My husband and I help to support my mother in law, so she did not have ANY money to add to our wedding. And his father thought it was a BIG mistake for his son to marry me (since my mother is a divorce attorney).

We just had our wedding with the j.o.p., and then had a big ol' party at our house later.

My in-laws were very helpful! My mother-in-law prepared some of the food for the reception, they bought some of the items. One sister-in-law did the decorating and the other handled the photography.

My mother-in-law made my wedding gown. I was so frustrated because I couldn't find what I wanted, so she had me make a little sketch and then she made it for me. She helped out with quite a lot, really.

Personnally.. my inlaws only paid for the bar tab at the reception, although they picked out the rehearsal dinner caterer & the majority of those in attendance were their relatives.

Susan

Terrie,

That's awesome that your mil made your wedding gown. My inlaws were very generous and paid for a dessert table and part of the reception. A lot of our wedding was paid for via barter. My husband is a television producer and at the time was doing commercial work (now he does sports) so we were able to get a 10 piece orchestra, 2 limos (one stretch one rolls royce) and hte flowers via barter. My aunt paid for our wedding cake, my grandmother my wedding dress and my mother the other part of the reception. So we were very very lucky to have not had much expense with the wedding.

I was married at 18 and had already gone to college for a year and then had to leave for financial reasons (my mom decided not to pay tuition any more). So I was feeling very prickly about needing parents. I was working at a good job already. My boyfriend was going to college and working on the side. So I was very against asking anyone else to help us with "our" wedding, I wanted to do it all ourselves <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

We had I think 80 or so people, had a Protestant service at his childhood church and then a reception at a local hall that specialized in receptions so sort of handled everything from food to music and so on. It was more a 'fun party' than anything else <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Lisa:

When its all said and done, I think I would have preferred 80 or so guests than what ended up at my ceremony, I didn't know most of them.

I think small weddings are more romantic than larger ones!

Susan

My inlaws did not pay for any part of the wedding but they did give us a large monetary gift in our wedding card. My family and my then fiance paid for the wedding. I think I bought a few small items but it was mostly my mother, grandmother and fiance that paid for everything.

My family did things to help with the reception, so they didn't pay for any of the normal wedding stuff. I had been out of the house for 4 years, so I was not going to ask them for help. I think my father in law paid for the rehearsal dinner. My mother in law paid for our honeymoon. But we had a great wedding on a budget.