Fortunately (or unfortunately) I am marrying an asian girl. Asians have a strong tradition where a fancy wedding dinner is pretty much the norm, so its a non negotiable here. We arent planning anything very fancy by asian standards, trust me. Just a 'medium sized' wedding.

The thing is, it's also in asian culture for wedding guests to give a token of blessing to the couple and this usually takes the form of cash. Most guests usually cover the cost of their seat at the wedding dinner and I expect to recover most of the wedding expenses.