Help! I have a lot of questions.
Here's what we are doing...
Due to school and financial reasons my FI and I are having a small ceremony in about 2 1/2 weeks. It will be just immediate family (parents, siblings, grandparents, about 15 ppl total). It will be at this beautiful historic tree that is over 500 years old. It will be a very short ceremony, probably less than 10 minutes. About a month later we are having a "celebration"/party at a different location to celebrate our marriage in which we are inviting all of our family and friends.
Ceremony-Because of the tree's historical significance and the effort to preserve the tree, there is NO setup allowed. This means we cannot setup chairs or anything else, they will allow for my grandmother who cannot stand for long to have a chair and anyone else who needed one for health reasons. My question regarding this is if that is rude? My first instinct is yes, I should provide seating. However if the location does not allow it and the ceremony will be short is it ok? Many, many people get married here (not that everyone else has proper etiquette). I considered bringing qults for anyone who would like to sit.
Second question. This is in 2 1/2 weeks, very near impossible to get invitations out, we have checked with all of our family and they are so excited and able to come. Is it ok to tell everyone out plans by calling them? Also, this is about an 1 1/2 away from us and my family and 3 hours for FI's family.
Last questiom. We would like to go to a restaurant to eat with everyone who would like to afterwards. Should we pay for everyone's meals? We cant really afford to but I don't want to be rude and we will just be telling everyone that we are going to eat and would love it if they could join us.