Rude to invite friends but not aunts and uncles?

It depends on your family dynamics. If you have a good relationship with your aunts and uncles, I'd invite them but if you have a better relationship with your friends, invite them over your aunts and uncles.

You were raised well. Friends come and go, family sticks.

No one regrets inviting family over friends-- in fact, most live to regret choosing friends over family later.

Mature people with high emotional intelligence understand the value of family. Very few people are surrounded by their friends when they die--it is always their family. Scale back on the wedding--have a brunch. Be with the people who have loved you your entire life.

It hurts even more when friends are invited over a family member (like an aunt), and then the bride tries to justify this choice for budget reasons. If you watch the couple's lifestyle, and you see them have multiple cars, take many trips, go out and do events and activities, etc., and they claim "poor," it might be that you are better off with limited involvement with them. They are not honest people. FYI...there are ways to have beautiful and affordable weddings.

All I have to say is family is forever. Friends come and go. don't invite a close relative and they will remember that forever. And now it becomes awkward when you see them at family gatherings.

If you're really close to the couple, then you can talk about it. Instead you harbor lifelong resentment and judge their finances. But, what do you know about it or how they live? You're not in the conversation. Just entitled.