Small wedding, how to celebrate with friends?

AngelaReneeClaire

Hi all, 

My FI and I have decided to go for a small wedding, after a few months of thinking we'd do something bigger, so I'm trying to get my brain on the right track for a more intimate event. 

It's going to be just very close family and friends. And obviously, when it's smaller, there is a large group of people that you're friends with that you have to end up leaving out. 

Is there a way we could celebrate our marraige with this larger group of friends, without inviting a ton of people to the actual wedding? Either before or after the wedding? No gifts would be expected. It would just be nice to celebrate with them in some sort of way. (I hope I'm making sense right now...)

Is that possible without being rude about the fact that they weren't invited on the actual day?

boxjelly

Maybe just host a barbecue when you come back from your honeymoon. It might be a bit rude to make mention of the wedding, but your friends will probably be aware of the nuptials.

AngelaReneeClaire

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_pre-wedding-parties_small-wedding-how-to-celebrate-with-friends?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:32Discussion:7a53fe32-730c-4b90-903d-3a0750b49f16Post:290785fb-d829-4fed-ac37-5125ab1798a6">Re: Small wedding, how to celebrate with friends?</a>:
[QUOTE]Maybe just host a barbecue when you come back from your honeymoon. It might be a bit rude to make mention of the wedding, but your friends will probably be aware of the nuptials.
Posted by boxjelly[/QUOTE]

<div>I like it. Definitely a simple solution. Thank you! :)</div>

shanhou3

We're dealing with the same thing and I think friends will understand... I was thinking of just planning a meet-up at a bar a few weeks after the ceremony with our friends who weren't there (which is almost all of them); I think having it somewhere like a bar keeps it casual and sort of implies people don't need to bring gifts or anything.  I've even thought about saying "don't buy us a gift, buy us a beer!" or something, I don't know.  I really truly believe that good friends will be thrilled to celebrate with you guys and won't care about missing the ceremony - some (especially the dudes!) might even be relieved they didn't have to dress up, buy gift, do the macarena with your great-aunt, etc.

I think each of our parents is also going to throw little BBQs for their extended families (we're having immediate fam only @ ceremony/wedding dinner), so I was thinking that the friends in our hometowns who may not be invited to the ceremony could be invited to the family BBQs too. Just another thought!