Wedding Party refuses to help with anything

Your guests aren't responsible for working your wedding. That's the job of you and your fiancé. Your party needs to get their dress/suit and show up at the rehearsal and the wedding along with posing for photos etc.

They don't need to be doing anything to help set up the event or run errands for you etc.

Sounds like you're trying to have an event on a shoestring budget, which is fine as long as guest experience is the most important.

Pick your priorities, which should be chairs for guests and the marriage license. The comfort of the guests comes before aesthetics and extras. Can you cancel or let go of things that haven't been paid for yet?

Good luck with the rest of the planning, I hope it goes well!

A major consideration with DIY also has to be the labor involved. I'm sorry this is stressful for you, but I agree with the other posters that it is not appropriate to ask guests to work for you for free, especially with yard work. Also keep in mind that your friends' financial situations aren't necessarily obvious or something they reliably share with you.

I'm surprised you waited this long to rent chairs or tables. Rental places near me run out of these quickly, especially in popular wedding months. Maybe a local park or school will have some they can loan you? As for the marriage certificate, there's no way to get around the fee. An unlikely option is to see if the municipality will allow for a deferred payment or payment plan. Otherwise, you can have a symbolic ceremony and get legally married when you can afford it.

Maybe the rental company will let you barter for work or set up a payment plan.

Can you return the wedding party's attire? If so, I suggest doing that and using the money for the marriage license and chairs/tables. If you can't swing the rentals, maybe you could have people bring their own chairs? It's not ideal, but better than nothing. Alternatively, you could set out blankets and have people sit on those, but let them know in advance if you do this. You'd also need to make accommodations for anyone who has mobility issues.

It might be worth it to see if the store will refund you anyway. Some stores will credit the amount back to you on the same card you bought the merchandise with. If that doesn't work, you could try to resell it and have the party wear something they already have. Also, reach out to the courthouse (or whoever issues the marriage license) and see if they can work something out with you.

Agree totally with Cece, but also reiterating that guests will need seats.

Your original options were to allow them to wear clothing of their choice, or sticking to your vision in which case perhaps one or more of them would have stepped down. The former is more gracious. And of course the shoes don't have to match and makeup is up to them, not you. As for their finances, never try to count other people’s money. If you’re as tight for money as you say you are, I don’t know why you’re doubting them. That said, they were wrong to pressure you into covering these things.

I agree with PPS who say you are out of line to expect anyone but the actual hosts, ie you, or paid vendors to do any actual work for the wedding. Bridesmaid is an honorary title, not a job description. The only help that can justifiably be expected are relatively small things like helping you dress, maybe bringing you a snack while getting ready, holding your flowers, participating in photos and the ceremony on your wedding day. NOT setting up, cleaning up and certainly not yard work. Just no.

If you can’t afford to rent matching chairs I’d try to borrow what you need. If you can’t afford even the price of the license maybe it would be better to postpone until you’re in better financial shape.

I am sorry your friends have really disappointed you. No matter what the proper etiquette, it would be really nice to have some help from your “friends”. I don’t know how you get through this without a lot of bitterness. So sorry this has happened like this. With most other events, it seems ok to ask for help. I don’t know why it is different for weddings. Seems odd that you can’t ask your wedding party to help just because it isn’t in a formal job description. This is especially true since they verbally agreed to help in the past. Again, I hope it works out for you and your new spouse.