Female Muslim Friends want to come visit & sleep over at my House since I (F) got married and moved to another country. I’m I an ungrateful friend or is it normal that I am not very comfortable with the idea?

I (F) have FINALLY been living with my husband for less than 6 months, after more than 2 years of complicated paperwork to allow me to move in with him in his country of residence. Both my husband and I are Muslim, and so are all the friends I am talking about. All of these events are taking place in Europe, except for my wedding, which I had back home.

Since I moved to my husband’s country of residence, I have had at least 3 female Muslim friends asking me if they can come over to visit me and stay at our house.

So far, only one of these friends has. She is an old uni friend/ classmate. I initially found an excuse and told her no the first time (she asked to come 2/3 weeks after I had just moved in, when even the new apartment wasn’t fully furnished yet). She then asked again 5 months later, and I said okay because it felt awkward saying no twice in a row. I didn’t want to come off as rude, especially considering she gave me wedding gifts and flew overseas to my country for my wedding. Bought the flight tickets herself and hotel room…

I trust my friend. She is very sweet and nice, and I appreciate her a lot. She is even more practising than I am (e.g. she wears hijab and I don’t) and doesn’t have any odd behaviour around non-mahram men. I also fully trust my husband. I don’t feel like anyone in the situation has bad intentions. This isn’t my concern at all…

And yet, I still somewhat feel uncomfortable with the idea of having female friends sleeping over for several days, especially considering I am still a new bride.

For context, my friends and I come from very different countries and cultures, even though we all come from Muslim countries.
So sometimes I wonder if things that are questionable in my culture might be completely okay in other cultures.

For example, the first time this same friend came over to my house (when I was a student and living in the same city as her, before I got married), she asked me if she could take home the box of chocolates that I had put on the table while hosting her and other friends. I told her okay, but I felt it was weird because, in my culture, that would be considered a shameful thing to do.

But to go back to the main topic: in my culture, hospitality is important, but there is also a lot of etiquette when it comes to hosting and being a guest.
To start, it is 3eib (somewhat rude) to invite yourself to someone else’s house. It is also 3eib to sleep at the house of a non-mahram. My family and husband wouldn’t allow me to sleep over alone at a married friend’s house.

Moreover, European apartments aren’t exactly the biggest. Both my husband and I felt constricted and felt that we had a lack of privacy while my friend was staying with us.
I already barely see him because he works long hours during the week. I always impatiently wait for the weekends because they are typically the only time we really get to spend together. My friend stayed for 3 nights and 3 full days—the entire weekend.

During that time, he basically ended up locking himself in the bedroom since my friend was in the living room. He also asked me to spend some time outside with her so that he could have some ease and freedom of movement in his own house during the day. He wasn’t rude and also thought she was a nice and quiet girl. He just wasn’t that comfortable with the entire situation.

I don’t know if this could partly explain the situation, but my friend and I come from two different social backgrounds, if I may put it that way. I grew up in the Arab world, not a millionaire, but in a financially comfortable family.
Even though she has never invited me to her house, I know that she comes from a large family and was born and raised in Europe in what would be considered a “tough area.” I also know that she probably can’t afford a hotel on top of her train ticket, so I didn’t suggest that to her.

And lastly, my own parents and in-laws don’t even want to fly over and bother us because they told us that we are newly married and need some privacy and time alone so that we can get used to living with each other, especially after all these years of waiting. I really appreciate that. But it is something my friends don’t seem to consider…

Sometimes I feel guilty for being annoyed with my friends for asking to come over and stay, especially since they are genuinely nice girls and I know they don’t mean any harm.
So I’m curious about other Muslims’ perspectives, especially since this may vary a lot depending on culture:
**Is this mostly a cultural difference? Is it reasonable for me to feel uncomfortable with female friends asking to stay at our home for several days now that I’m married? Or am I being an ungrateful friend?**
And for those who are married: **how do you handle friends who live abroad wanting to visit and stay at your home?**