Is it the duty of a parent to financially contribute to their child’s wedding?

Many people consider their wedding day to be the most important day of their lives, and that is a big part of the reason that a conventional celebration doesn’t come cheap. Between the venue hire, the dress, and catering for a large chunk of the people you know, estimates suggest that the ‘average’ US wedding in 2026 costs somewhere in the region of $36,000.

That isn’t a chunk of money that everybody who gets married has casually lying around. In fact, it is pretty normal to expect family to chip in and help with some of the costs of a couple starting their life together, but not all relatives are going to be ready and willing to do that. Some may even actively resent the idea that they should give away their hard-earned cash in support of somebody else’s special day. Wedding planning can be dramatic and emotionally fraught at every stage, and sometimes, just trying to fund the thing can be the worst part. The costs quickly mount up, and expectations have to be scaled down if there is nobody who is going to pay them.