Small wedding with reception later?

mdss

Hello Ladies!

This is only my second post here, but I read post on this board pretty often.

We are at the beginning of our planning stages and have lots of different ideas and options and just having troulbe figuring out what is best for us.

My FI and I would like to have a small wedding.  We said we would be happy if it was just the two of us with our parents and siblings.  Our parents kind of freaked out at that idea, so we said we could do parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles.  Our parent's are still not thrilled with that idea.

We just want a small and pesronal wedding.  To us it is not about the big party that you can throw, it's about the sacrament that is being preformed and being husband and wife at the end of the day.  Our families want to be able to invite all their friends and say that it will be hard to draw the line on cutting guest if we say it's just family.

We thought of possibly getting married and then just having a party at home once the wedding and honeymoon are over to try to accomidate everyone's feelings.

We live in Louisiana and love the Destin area, and go there several times a year.  We want to get married in Destin because we love the area, and it is special to us.  We also thought that a destination wedding would be an easier way of having a small wedding.

Has anybody done this, gone to a party after a wedding and not invited to the wedding, if so, how did it make you feel to not be invited to the wedding, but just a party?  Does anybody have any suggestinos on what to do or other ideas? 

Sorry this is kind of long, we are just so confused on what to do, and the size of our wedding will determine a lot on where we do the wedding.  We can't really make any decisions until we decide on the size of the wedding.  We just want to keep peace and everyone happy.

Thanks for any input and happy planning to all!

NYHarleyBride

It sounds like you already know what you want to do, and are stuck on trying to please everyone else. If they are paying, of course, this can be a point of contention. There are a lot of people who do what you are suggesting, have an intimate or small family wedding at a destination, and a larger at home reception after. As a guest, I would not think it is just  big party. This is becoming more and more popular. Most brides wear their dress,have cake, and some even restate their vows at the AHR.

You might check out the Destination Wedding board too. There are a lot of ladies that have gone through this also.

lifeizbeachy

I had a friend do that and to be honest the idea appeals to me very much as well. My fiance also thought it was great because we want our ceremony to be intimate and then have a party to include everyone else. I talked to a wedding entertainer at Davids Brides Night Out and he seemed to have some great ideas to make our reception have some special moments to make our guests feel included in our marriage even though they weren't at the ceremony.  Once we choose our venue I want to meet with him and talk about specifics. I have to call Davids and ask for his name because I lost his business card.

So we are leaning in that direction as well. I love Destin also, we aren't sure where we are getting married somewhere along the gulf coast. We are just starting to look at potential locations. It's so daunting, too many choices.

elissa81

My FI and I are getting married in Destin next June. We always knew we wanted to get married on the beach even though our families would rather have a wedding at home so our whole family could go but this is our wedding and felt like this would be more memorable and special by only having our closest family and friends at the wedding and then we are having a reception a month later back home. Good luck in whatever you decide but do what makes you happy- this is your wedding not anyone's but yours.