Guests you don't know at your wedding?!?

Put a cap on it. I would hate for you to look back at your wedding photos and say who is that

We asked our parents for a list with addresses. FH vetted FIL/MIL's list and cut it in half. We spoke with them about why we weren't inviting the others (FH barely knows them). MIL had a couple she really wanted to receive an invite. They offered to pay for the RD, so we extended the invite per MIL's request.

Ultimately, this is a discussion you both need to have with your parents. If it's your FIL/MIL who are pushing to invite, your FI needs to be the one to talk to them.

Regardless of whether or not you asked them to, if anyone is chipping in money, they do have a say in who's invited. That does not mean you and your FI can't express your concern but it might be a contingency/string attached to the money.

I honestly don't think anyone you do not know should be invited. It's yours and your FHs special day it's not a meet and greet. That's something I never understood with weddings personally but everyone has their opinions of course

This was an issue with FMIL. She at one point, I counted, wanted to add 43 people to our list. Most of those people FH didn't know or didn't even want to invite to the wedding. so I had to sit FH down and talk about setting a limit. We decided our parents can invite up to 8 people or 4 couples. My dad didn't ask to invite anyone and my mom only asked to invite one couple so this limit was mostly for FMIL. I do think that there should be limits even if they are helping pay. If they get out of hand then don't let them pay for anything.

We didn't put a limit to how many people our parents wanted to invite since both sets contributed... so there will be LOTS of people we don't know at our wedding! We're hoping for a lot of declines..

My MIL asked us to invite her three cousins and their spouses. I'd never met them but it meant a lot to her so we did.

(I STILL haven't met them! I met one spouse at the wedding.)

None.

My fiance and I were the only ones involved in our guests list. This is one of the things I don't understand. Why do the parents' friends want to go to a wedding for someone they don't know and why do they think you want strangers at your wedding? Unless you grew up with these people, I would not be allowing extra invites going out.

I told my parents and his that they could invite anyone they wanted. We chose to get married in my hometown (super low COLA) specifically so we didn't have to limit the guest list. I knew virtually everyone my parents invited (although some I hadn't seen in 10 years) and H's parents invited maybe 15 or 20 that I didn't know, but I don't think any of them actually travelled to the wedding. (If they did, I didn't see them and wasn't introduced.)