Fiancé's parents insisting on inviting relatives...

We had the same thing. To keep the peace we told his parents that they could invite who they saw fit to the evening (very small ceremony room so there was no room for them there) but they would have to foot the bill for them because we simply couldn't afford it.

To be honest this was more distant family, we made sure all close family members were invited from the off.

Why aren't you having more family? If this is your choice I don't really think you can count that as a reason to refuse them. Our numbers weren't evenly split, it's impossible when you have different size families and friend groups.

I guess the crux of it depends on how your fiance feels about it, and whether it will cause problems for him with his parents...

What is his view?

Hi there, thanks for your helpful response. I think asking them to pay could work, as there's always the chance they'll decide it's not worth the expense. If they do, then I guess I can't stress about it too much.

To answer your question, I'm not having more family because I don't have any other close family. I have more distant family who live very far away overseas but none of them can afford the airfare over.

There's some tension between this side of the family (fiancé's dad) so I just hope guests will behave themselves at the reception...

Well, I know he definitely doesn't want to invite the uncle and his family for personal and financial reasons. I'm not sure how he feels about talking to his parents about it. He's been pretty stressed so I haven't pushed the issue with him yet. Our wedding is next August so were not in a rush to finalise the guestlist.

In general, he has a very good relationship with his parents, but as I said, his dad can be quite difficult. It might be that by the time the wedding comes round, his dad will have gotten over it.

I think the best thing for you is to leave your fiancé to handle it with his parents. Saves you the stress of being the "difficult" daughter in law (not that I think you are at all, but they might see it that way!) and he can raise the tricky questions like paying for it. Good luck!

We were under pressure to invite the MILs siblings, but my H simply said no. He explained that numbers were tight and that an evening invite was the best we could manage. His mum was understandably disappointed, but - what's she gonna do? Boycott the wedding?!

Your OH's parents can simply explain (if called upon to do so!) that it wasn't their decision.

I see the position you're in but it amazes me how often these threads come up.

I think you should just tell OH to make it clear to parents what he wants to do, it's you & his wedding so not up to them who goes, so if it's for personal reasons with OH there's no need for them to be there, if it's a take them or leave them but down to money situation ask them to pay and you'll soon se how important it id for them to be there lol.
The thing I've learned though is to leave OH to deal with his family, or it always looks like i'm the bad one haha.