Hah, if only my parents or wifes parents had paid for our wedding. That would have been pure luxury. We saved for three years to pay for our wedding. We were very frugal and it was beautiful. Paid for the entire thing without a cent of debt. It's certainly doable.

My in-laws probably paid for about half of our wedding expenses. So we happily paid the other $600.

Maybe he gets paid by the word? Well, he did say he needed the money.