Louisiana-New Orleans

Justice of the Peace vs Wedding Ceremony

My finance wants to get married at the Justice of the Peace. I want the thing...wedding ceremony and reception. So I decided that he have the Justice of the Peace if I can have a nice reception. Can someone give idea or advice on this dilemma?

Re: Justice of the Peace vs Wedding Ceremony

  • edited December 2011
    My brother was married by the Justice of the Peace at a country club. I think they had 100 guests total. They kept it small and still had a nice wedding. 

    My cousin's friend is Justice of the Peace and is going to appoint my cousin to marry us. This works out great for us because we didn't want to a big church ceremony. We want to keep things short and sweet.
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  • edited December 2011
    Generally speaking, people get really upset if they're not invited to the ceremony and they're still expected to give a gift/attend a "reception."  

    If you're going to do the big white dress, tiered cake, toss the bouquet thing, you really ought to invite everyone to see you get married.  If you're just having a "party" after the wedding with no real reference to the wedding, then it's probably less likely to offend people. 

    Sorry. =(  I know that it's not what you want to hear. 
  • meganb1977meganb1977 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    If you want a more private ceremony with a larger party afterwards that is fine, just make it clear on your invitations that it is for a "reception to honor the marriage of..." or other appropriate working so people will know there won't be a ceremony.  I think a justice of the peace will come out to the location where you are having your party, and you can have your ceremony beforehand (and have everyone show up for the party an hour later or so).  If you want everyone there for the ceremony, many venues have separate areas where you can have your ceremony and party, or they have a well-perfected system where they change the setup over between the ceremony and reception.  It can be difficult trying to compromise when you want different things and great that you and your fiance were able to meet in the middle :-)  Although in my case he wanted the big party and I wanted something smaller LOL.
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