Weddingbee boards

My fiance and I have been struggling for awhile with his mom, who has been getting upset at wedding talk since she doesn't approve of us not wanting to marry in a church, and instead marry in our city in a less traditional venue. 

So today we brought it up again, and told her that we found the place we love, and that we know it's not what she wanted, but we still hope she's okay with it, and letting her know that it has x, y, and z that she had asked about. At one point we said, "we're not expecting any financial help or anything, since you've helped us so much with school." (they employ us at their nursing home and pay FI's tuition.)

And she (oh so casually) goes, "Well, I'm giving you what I gave [your sister] for her wedding. We paid exactly $14,000 for her wedding, and that's what I'd like to give you two." 

$14,000!!!! I can't tell you how much we were stuttering thank yous. Chicago weddings are so expensive, and we have large families. I kid you not, it almost exactly matches what we were going to pay for ourselves. The thought of being able to put that money towards paying off student loans or towards our first home is AMAZING. I can't believe how generous they are being! (Well, they're generous people, but I would never have expected this much, and it still astounds me.) 

That is wonderful! That money will def. help with a down payment for a home, a good honeymoon, or new furniture!

Thanks everyone!

@jenbrandner: and @pendola: she brought it up right after we told her we were signing for the non-church venue. She asked what the capacity of it was, and a little about it, and then said that it sounded nice. She did ask if we would get a blessing in our parents' home church at some point a couple weeks after our wedding. Frankly, I am okay with that. I may not believe in it, but it'll make our families happy and it's not starting off our marriage on that foot like a religious ceremony would. I also feel like it's less disrespectful to the pastor, since we're not vowing that we believe it. I would have been really worried about her expecting something else if she hadn't offered after all the discussion, but she seemed genuinely happy and she is not a manipulative person, so not the double crossing kind. 

@hilsy85: She's expecting most of it to go towards the wedding. She did say that if there is any extra, we should put it towards my loans, but I'm 99.99% sure there won't be just because 175 people wedding in downtown Chicago = crazy expensive, even with all the DIY we're doing. But it will free up the money that my fiance and I were planning to put toward the wedding ourselves, which is huge to two broke students!