Generally the parents of the bride do....and if they can't afford/do anything than the mother of the bride does or the bridal party. Honestly my mother is dead poor, we have to pay for everything for her to even come to the wedding. So she could not throw us one. His mother finally decided in May she was going to do it....yet planned it for the last weekend in July (we've been engaged since March 16th). So I find it a little late to be doing it in the first place but my MOH lives in FL and is flying up tomorrow for the party so I get 5 whole days with her out of it. But his mother is a pain in the ass. We wanted just to go out to dinner with the bridal party and immediate family.....she picked a banquet hall with a sit down dinner, open bar, and even asked if we should get a DJ?! And is making me do all the centerpieces.....on top of that she invited 52ppl......we're not even having that many at the wedding. AND she's spending $2,000 on the party.....my FI said it would of been nice if she just handed us $2,000 since we have to pay for the entire wedding by ourselves.....