Weddingbee boards

We had our Chinese banquet 2 weeks ago and received a lot of gold and money.  FI's family paid for the whole wedding and it seems they are keeping the bulk of the gift money and may give us some of the it.  Is this the way it's supposed to be?  I thought that the money is given to the couple for their new life together.  I've heard that sometimes the bride's, groom's or both families split the money.  I'm just confused because I know that the couple gets to keep all the gifts at a western wedding.  My parents certainly don't expect to keep any of the money.   

Thanks for the explanation.  The money from the guests was enough to pay for our banquet and we just received our share of the gift money which will be useful.  I also found this explanation on Wikipedia:

In Chinese society, the wedding reception is known as xǐ-jǐu (喜酒, literally joyful wine), and is far more important than the wedding itself which tends to be a brief civil ceremony. The timing and the characteristics of the reception vary strongly from locale to locale. They are often extremely elaborate and expensive, often costing several years' salary of the groom's family. However, because cash in the form of red envelopes and jewelry (particularly gold) are given as wedding presents, and because the wedding hosts keep very careful track of the cost of the gifts (jewelry is given with a receipt which indicates the actual cost of the gift), the cost of the reception is effectively split among the wedding guests. Wedding receptions also build local community solidarity. As each couple weds, their wedding reception is in effect financed with gifts from the other members of the community with the expectation that the new couple and their family will give gifts in future wedding receptions within the village.