Traditional Division of Wedding Costs

Today, there are so many couples who fund their weddings without their parents' help. I respect these couples immensely because a wedding is no cheap affair. The average wedding cost is creeping toward $30,000, and could be more in some urban areas. I certainly don't have that kind of money, and when my husband and I were married, we definitely had help from our parents. We had a pretty typical traditional wedding (with our personalities written all over it, of course!) where my parents paid for everything except the honeymoon & rehearsal dinner (my husband's parents paid for those).

Here is the typical breakdown of costs between the bride's & groom's families:

Bride's Side
Bridal consultant
Invitations
Photography
Music
Flowers
Videography
Transportation
Reception
Groom's wedding ring
Accommodations for bridesmaids

Groom's Side
Bride's engagement & wedding rings
Officiant's fee/donation
Marriage license
Honeymoon
Rehearsal dinner

[Doesn't the separation of costs seem a TAD unbalanced?!]

My parents also paid for half of the bridesmaid dresses (because I chose $250 dresses instead of $100 dresses) and paid for a lot of my bachelorette party expenses.

Here are some extra things I paid for as the bride:
Hair & makeup for my mom, bridesmaids, flower girls and me on the big day
Bridesmaid, flower girl, ring bearer, mother, father, mother-in-law, father-in-law gifts (given at rehearsal dinner)
All of my bridal jewelry & accessories