In his defense , the grooms parents traditionally pay for the rehearsal dinner and the brides for the wedding . So him offering to help out and expecting to help with the rehearsal dinner makes sense to me . My FHs parents aren ' t even giving us an amount and just expect to pay for rehearsal dinner . You can explain to him that you ' re not having a rehearsal dinner and you don ' t expect him to pay for the wedding . Just that you need a little assistance at the moment because of the transition with the new job . But you ' ll pay him back as soon as you can . Maybe with that explanation that there won ' t even be a rehearsal dinner he will be more willing to pay for the wedding . But I wouldn ' t compare him wanting to help out his daughter with wedding or vacations to helping with your wedding considering he shouldn ' t be expected to pay for his sons wedding . I never was offered anything for the wedding from FHs parents and would never expect it because it ' s traditionally on the brides parents .