Wedding etiquette question

Whoever is hosting, doing the inviting, should pay.

Not sure how much this applies to your situation (since I don't have all the details), but tradition usually dictates that the Groom's family pays for the rehearsal dinner and the bride's pays for the wedding/reception.  If you aren't really having a rehearsal dinner this could get a bit dicey.  Just make sure you talk to the waiter beforehand.

bts 

Yeah, you could pay for it, but I wouldn't turn down any offers of payment from  anyone.    

congratulations!!   "normal wedding".....  is any wedding normal, by the way? 

My DH's family didn't do a dang thing for our wedding.  They didn't even come!  NOT ONE PERSON from his family was there.  Dang, this is their first born son's wedding.   So it was all my friends and relatives.  We had a buffet type thing and a CW band and a couple of kegs of beer with a couple bottles of whiskey.   My relatives did a lot of the cooking, some of it was bought it.  My nana and her Slavic friends/cousins made a lot of the ethnic pastries.  It was very informal reception and very fun.  IT was the only time I've seen Daddy drunk. 

For those who are wondering- they didn't think their son getting married was worth an 8hour drive.  humph.  His brother was the only one with a real excuse- he was in Iceland!

I can't even fathom that.  I've flown 5 hours then driven 8 more to get to friends weddings... I actually had a few folk who drove 14 hours the day befor my wedding then turned around and drove back the next day.  And none of those cases were even family.  Was it his 6th or 7th wedding or something... even with that, it's still messed up.

bts 

We had a friend fly in from Hawaii for our wedding.  I hope there's more to the story than just lazy parents.

to answer the two gentlemen above...  yep, the in laws are lazy and self centered.  They hardly ever socialize with family.  They don't spend time with the kids, they live 20 minutes away!!   They call every so often, yes.  They are just extremely uncomfortable being out of their element- their house, walmart, and flea markets.   They don't take vacations or anything of the sort.  Never went on family vacations with the kids when they were younger.    Thats just the way they are- hermits.   And yes, it was our first wedding each, maybe the fact that we  met, a month later engaged, three months from meeting he got deployed for six months, two months after his return we got married.  quickie, no shotgun.  That was 18 years ago and we are still at it,and his brother and sister (whom of yes, they went to their weddings- they were here) are both divorced.   Maybe that's a good thing- they may be bad luck or something?  humph.    I could go on and on about the weird things my in laws do.

to the OP---  glad it all worked out!!