Modern day, who should pay?

To preface this, my fiance and I aren't even out of college yet. The wedding will be about a year from our graduation date. Given the timing, we're not at a point in our lives where we have much (read: any) disposable income, much less ~$20k for a big Italian-style wedding.Given this, my (the bride's) parents have offered to foot the entire bill, incredibly generously, so that we can have the wedding soon. They've given us a budget of 10-20k, encouraging us to stay on the lower end of that spectrum. Now, my family is by no means badly off, but the groom's family is more towards the high upper middle class financial bracket. Add to this, the groom's family has mentioned to me casually that they're interested in helping out with the wedding.Now, I know that in the past it's traditionally done that the bride's family pays for the wedding, groom's family pays honeymoon (or at least that's what I've heard from my mother). What I'm wondering is given the financial difference and the expressed willingness, is it appropriate to approach the groom's family to see if they could "split the bill" as it were, so that we're able to do more with this occasion. My mother is completely horrified by the idea and is under the impression that it is never, ever done and would be a terribly egregious thing that would make the bride's family look bad. Is she correct, or have things changed enough to allow this?TL;DR: Bride's family wants to pay for the whole thing but is under some financial limits, groom's family is willing and able, is it socially okay to ask for some monetary help? via /r/weddingplanning http://ift.tt/2uKvyys