father of the bride has to pay the wedding?

I haven't seen this rule in use for a very long time, i guess it's just not the way things are done any more. I'm sure there are still a few people or places who use this old rule. Both of my cousins were married within the last 3 or 4 years - both sets of parents put in a certain amount of money each towards the wedding basics (dresses, flowers, everything else) & if the bride & groom wanted anything else - extra fancy or not really necessary, they had to pay for it themselves! It seemed to work out well for the 2 couples so maybe that's a good way to go about doing it - that way everyone pays some & 1 person isn't responsible for the entire cost. Since the male usually does the proposing, i never understood why the female's father was responsible for paying for everything!

We have never had such a practice. In the past, it was usually the groom's parents that had to pay for the entire wedding. Moreover, they also had to give a dowry to the bride's family. The reason for this was that they were acquiring a new member to their family and therefore had to compensate the other family. These days, couples usually earn and help to pay for their own wedding. Usually when they invite people to their wedding, most people would give them some cash as a gift and they would use this to pay for the wedding.