It might sound hypocritical coming from me but I do think Arabi weddings are excessive and Arabs are soooo extra expecting to be invited to everyone's wedding. Inkoot you receive will not pay for your wedding. Not half and not even 1/3 of it. The main reason why I say this is because most of our weddings cost beyond our means and the groom usually ends up needing his family to pay, goes in debt to someone to pay for the wedding or uses all his savings (and some) to pay for it. If you can comfortably afford to drop 100k+ and it won't hurt you one bit, cool....but if not...idk what to say except think about how much money that is! A typical Palestinian American wedding costs anywhere from 50-100k, which can be a lot more if you come from a wealthier family, and that is A LOT of money to spend for 5-10 hours of fun (sometimes). That could be a lifetime investment of some sort for your actual household instead of trying to please your (most likely) unpleasable guests. Someone's gonna complain about your food, the cake, bride's dress/ makeup, decoration, mixed or separateness if the wedding, how fun or boring the wedding was, the guys dancing for 5 years etc. After growing up a bit, going through it and watching everyone else go through it again and again and again, I think it's safe to say that I'm definitely gonna convince my children to have a destination wedding somewhere tropical and sweet or a cuter, smaller more intimate type of wedding if they wish to get married and want mommy and daddy paying for it (unless they choose otherwise and THEY can AFFORD a blown out of proportion wedding party). Otherwise, a wedding is just a terrible investment. People will tell you "OH but the memories and it's ONCE in a lifetime" blah blah blah. Well, I haven't watched my wedding video in YEARS and I've only been married for 3.5 of them sooooooooo yeah. I always like to add that this is just my opinion and how I feel and you don't have to like it or agree with what I'm saying BUT I'm just sayinnnnnn. wedding guest dresses for over 50