Even if the groom's family isn't taking on a large part of the wedding expenses, they are entitled to invite their friends and relatives to the reception — and they should be allowed to invite roughly as many guests as your family is inviting. When all is said and done, this is a celebration of your daughter's and their son's marriage, and the groom's parents will want to have their loved ones in attendance, too.

Years ago, the guest list was split evenly between the two families, which made for an easy time of conjuring up the magical number of attendees for each side. However, with more and more couples paying for their own weddings these days, and because more brides and grooms are waiting until they're older to walk down the aisle (and hence have their own group of friends and business associates they might like to include at the reception), the guest list is sometimes split three ways now: One-third of the head count goes to the bride and groom; a third goes to the bride's family; and the remaining third goes to the groom's family. Everyone's happy, and no one can be accused of commandeering the entire guest list.