Private destination wedding, reception thrown when back...

kaylamaeg

So my fiancé and I want to have a private destination wedding, him and I. Somewhere tropical, so we can immediately start our honeymoon. We may fly our parents out with us, but our preference is that we'd rather spend more money on a honey moon than an actual wedding.

We plan on throwing a reception when we get back, but I don't even know how to go about invites to that. Seeing as I know a lot of people get so huffy about being only invited to a reception. I don't know how to explain that the actual wedding is literally going to be under 5 people!


Is their a formal way to do this? Is that bad? I mean the reception is the fun part of a wedding in opinion. I've heard people say that "oh they just want a wedding gift, but I'm not invited to the wedding" it just stresses me out because I don't know how to send out invitations without people getting upset or jumping to conclusions about not getting invited to a wedding. As for the gift, I am going to do a registry but the people invited to the reception are getting their meals and drinks paid for, obviously...

Does anyone else have this issue?

princesstissue

We are doing a send off party as our reception party. Drinks and snacks at a winery. I put our registry on there if they want to bring gifts or something. I thought that would be better than trying to do it after. Hope it goes well. Are you recording it? Maybe you could have that there and do it that way so they can see it....

kaylamaeg

Oooh that's a good idea as well! I don't know why in my head I've got it as "vacation first" haha. We probably are not recording it no, part of the whole thing is we are just very private people you know? Probably abnormal haha. Thank you for the input though!! I appreciate it

plainjane0415

I am doing the same type of wedding, and we are going to be videoing our wedding in Aruba and then will be playing it at the reception for our guests to see. If you want to do the video thing it would be cool, but if you don't feel comfortable then don't worry about it!

Jells2dot0

You should plan on sending out wedding announcements immediately after your marriage. These will just announce that you and your FI were married on X date in Y location. Then, when you have your party arrangements in place, you send out invitations to "celebrate your recent marriage." If you are planning on having the party fairly close to your honeymoon return date, you can incorporate your announcement and invitation in one mailing. It's technically not a reception, since it's not immediately following your wedding. But, you would plan it as such minus anything that is wedding-specific (big dress, spotlight dances, tosses.)

txbandwife

Love the send-off party idea!  Will file that away for future reference!

WinstonsGirl

You're welcome to have a celebration when you get back, especially since you're having private ceremony. I'd word the invitations something along the lines of "Join us in the celebration of our marriage" or similar.