Transatlantic Wedding Etiquette?

perfectisboring

I was wondering how a wedding would work if the bride and the groom originated from different continents? My partner is British and I moved to England from Canada to be with him about two years ago. We're having a very small wedding with just our parents and siblings. We're both very happy with keeping it small, but what about couples that do it up big? I'm just genuinely cuirious about the correct/polite protocol in these situations.

So, what do you do when the bride's family and the groom's family are from different ends of the Earth? Suppose we got married in England; would we have a ceremony with just his family? Or, arrange something smaller so that both sides are equally represented? Is there any way to celebrate with both sides of the family without having them pay for very expensive flights?

SlothGoals

I would choose where you want to get married and invite everyone to that ceremony. Then you could have a marriage celebration in whatever country you didn't get married in and use the same guestlist. I think that's how AHRs work for DWs. As long as all the guests are invited to the actual wedding then having a celebration with those who couldn't make it is okay. It wouldn't have any of the wedding trappings though, like no dress, cake cutting, etc., because everyone will know you're already married.

tiny speck

I'm from Canada also, and living in England. FI is American living in England. With both our families back back in North America (and on opposite coasts at that), we confirmed with parents and siblings that they would be willing and able to travel, and planned our wedding here in England accordingly. We knew that it would be a small wedding and that only our immediate families would be able to attend from overseas but we still invited grandparents, aunts and uncles, and close family friends. We never entertained the idea of having multiple parties in different locations because we just didn't see the point. It would feel silly.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, short of paying for your familes' flights yourselves, there's not really a way to celebrate with both sides (if by celebrate you mean see you all dressed up doing "wedding stuff") without them incurring that expense.

Edited for clarity.

perfectisboring

That makes sense! I always wondered how couples from different countries went about inviting guests.

peekaboo2011

Depending on how many people can't make the trip due to costs, you could also potentially set up a ustream account and livestream your wedding.