AZ, it may not be a lot of money from the shadchan’s side but what if it’s a lot from the parents’? And is this just parents of the girls, or both sides?
As it is, I’ve seen amazing, beautiful efforts for hachnasas kallah in US communities, but if this is going to be added to the burden (and I’m talking about the working poor, who get help from the community to make a simple chasuna – not support, furniture, just the chasuna, rather than let the girls go unmarried) I think that’s absolutely untenable.