Japanese Wedding Customs

So my fiance and I are starting the preliminary stages of planning for our wedding. I figure it'll be good to get as much done while I'm still on "vacation."

One of the first steps is trying to figure out how big of a wedding we want to have, as in, how many people to invite and how big of a venue we need to look at. While discussing with my parents which family members they thought could make it over here, I learned something shocking and new to me.

In Japanese weddings, you're expected to pay for the travel & lodging expenses of ALL OF YOUR GUESTS!

Wow, did not know that. Considering the flight alone is $1000, inviting just 5-10 of my relatives could wipe out the entire wedding budget! No wonder I wasn't invited to my cousin's wedding last year... And my parents appear uneasy with the thought of asking our relatives to pay their own way to fly over for our wedding. With this new revelation, it appears as if I'll have to follow my cousin's cue and not invite anyone outside my immediate family members as far as family goes. As for my friends and my fiance's side of the family, we'll follow standard American protocol.