would you pay for this?

haha, so true. my aunt said this exact thing to my cousins when they were fussing over this stuff. but they are getting married in pakistan so it's even more extreme. she was like, 'a lot of people are just coming to eat, they don't even care if they see you or not'. so they are doing their tables and the family tables real nice for the photographs and leaving the others.
if their weddings were in the UK, it would just be family and close friends so it would be worth all the effort.