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Destination Weddings Discussions
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Who to invite to remote destination wedding?
We are having a destination wedding in December in Africa due to our parents still being there and wanting a real cultural celebration. Regardless of location, we were planning to have at least 200 people, now we are planning for about 400+ (big African family won't miss a party). Should I invite ALL friends from the USA even though I know that most of them won't be able to make it? Inviting them means they hold a special place in our lives, but I don't want it to seem like we are just inviting them because we expect gifts. At this point, we haven't decided if we need to hold a small party in the US and don't want to have one after all the resources go into a huge celebration in our home country.
thoughts?
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Re: Who to invite to remote destination wedding?
Invite whomever you would want to attend, as long as that number fits within the number of people your venue can hold and what you can afford. It is probably true that many people may not be able to make the journey, but you may be surprised as to how many would consider it.
It is absolutely not gift grabby to invite someone to attend your wedding, but it does seem gift grabby to host a party upon your return. It's true that many people do host at home receptions following a destination wedding, but I personally find it to be a bit AWish and a lot of extra work.
If you would invite them to a wedding in US, then go ahead and invite them to the destination wedding. We had several family members that I would have loved to join us, but knew they likely wouldn't be able to afford the trip, but we invited them anyway since we truly would have enjoyed their company. We even had a few of them manage to make the trip, which was awesome. Some of them may surprise you and attend, so make sure you can accommodate them if that happens. Our venue would have been able to accommodate all 80 people we invited, even though only 25 actually came. Some people do get 100% attendance at destination weddings, even if they didn't expect to, so don't invite more people than you can really accommodate.