My brother (27M) and SIL (29F) just got married three days ago. In our culture, wedding guests leave gifts—usually money—at the entrance before attending the ceremony, eating, and celebrating. Another tradition is hosting close family at home after the wedding for a proper meal, which both sides of the family typically handle separately.

Before the wedding, my parents met with my brother’s in-laws to discuss expenses. His in-laws demanded 2500K MMK from my parents to cover their wedding clothes and other costs. My parents aren’t rich, so my mom negotiated it down to 1500K MMK, which the in-laws agreed to. They also insisted they would handle their own family’s post-wedding gathering.

Now, here’s where things get messy. My country is currently going through economic decline, plus we had a huge earthquake two days before the wedding, leaving us without electricity. Despite all that, my parents covered almost everything—ceremony costs, food, generator fuel, and more. They also cooked for our side of the family’s post-wedding gathering.

During the ceremony, my brother’s in-laws suddenly demanded we give them food because they had “more guests” (even though they never checked how many we invited). They ended up taking half of the food we prepared, and when our actual guests arrived, we didn’t have enough to serve them properly. My mom was furious.

After the wedding, we checked the gift money, which totaled around 4500K MMK. My mom, who has chronic health issues (she had a kidney transplant 10 years ago), kept the money for the time being. She had been severely sick before the wedding but still pushed through for my brother’s big day. Afterward, she got worse and could barely move.

A few days later, my brother came into my mom’s room demanding the gift money because “he had things to do,” and apparently, my SIL wanted to give some to her parents. My mom told him she would sort it out once she felt better, but he insisted.

So, my mom finally sat down, calculated the expenses, and took back the 1500K MMK she had already given them before the wedding, along with the money she and my dad spent covering the ceremony. She then gave my brother around 1500-2000K MMK. He got upset, saying the wedding couldn’t have cost that much, and now there’s tension in the family.

For the record, I don’t think my SIL is a bad person, but my mom believes she might be influenced by her parents.

So, AITA for my family keeping the wedding gift money to cover what we already spent?

Edit; I forgot to mention my brother has never made a penny in his life. So there's not a single buck he chipped in for the wedding. But also, culturally, boyfriend's family has to cover but who'd do this in this situation and economy ?