I have zero experience in the matter, but I would do whatever makes the two of you happy/comfortable.
Man... 16 years of marriage this summer. Feels like just yesterday. We hired a photographer I liked who did portraits, but not really traditional weddings. She was/is mormon, so their weddings aren't really photographed. I wish I knew that then. She wasn't good at all for day of stuff, but was great for our engagement and wedding party photos. Our first dance was to Oh, It Is Love from HelloGoodbye and we still love hearing that song come on Apple Music. We spent maybe 10K? I forget, since it's been so long. Just got a good deal at my MIL's housing event center and church they have on site. I think we had about 200-300 people. Paying bar, no way were we paying for an open bar.
Male in a same-sex relationship here. Got engaged last summer. My partner and I discussed it a few years ago that we weren't going to spend a lot of money on an engagement ring and instead use that money for the wedding ring and/or the wedding itself. Not the most romantic thing, but I ordered the ring from Amazon lol. Everyone's different but to us it was more about what the ring represents more so than the ring itself. He said he'll always keep the ring, obviously, but once we're married will only wear the wedding ring.
My partner and I are getting married on 6/20 and thought we were doing well on planning. Venue locked in, food and booze locked down, playlist set (just need to organize for flow), decor in-process, guest lists squared away, etc. But in picking the date we hadn't considered the fact that the fucking World Cup was ~60 minutes away that weekend. We heard a few people early on say things were 'expensive' but... Now everything within an even remotely reasonable distance is gone. RIP to most of our out-of-towners, I guess.
nooooo, that's so unfortunate. Well, the Cup officially ends on the 19th, so hopefully things will calm down quickly. And depending on what city, things may clear out sooner!
Damn that sucks. It will still work out though. Maybe you'll end up saving some money on booze and catering too.
I missed this reply! Sorry about that... I really appreciate this remark and have received this advice multiple times as we really start to gear up: "It will all work out." And in this case it's definitely gonna save a bit on booze because I'm pretty confident it'll shrink the guest list down by ~20 total people. Because now, we're also realizing that parking options in the area are limited for guests. But we're in very close vicinity to public transportation, a common place for rideshares, etc. So it's not like people don't have other options. Best we can do is communicate and hope for the best.
Getting married this summer. We decided to keep it very small for budget and planning reasons, so essentially just immediate family. I thought this would be the most stress free option, but the closer we get to the date the more it feels a little sad not to have any of my close friends joining. My fiancé is inviting one non-family member (her childhood best friend and they are practically sisters anyway so it’d be weird if she wasn’t there). I’ve always been pretty outgoing, so I have a larger group of close friends. We have a little room in the budget to add a couple more people so I have toyed around with extending an invite to two friends, but that’s giving me anxiety for fear of alienating some others. I don’t want to end up damaging some friendships over it. Is there anyone in here who’s planned a small wedding and struggled with invites?
"Small" is pretty subjective. What we're doing is certainly more than just immediate family but we're sticking to a very specific number of guests which meant cutting some friends and members of extended family. I have two sets of aunts/uncles and at least six friends I had to opt out of inviting. Most of them just seem very happy for me and I haven't pressed on dates, etc. I think if you make it clear with people you speak to about it that you're "keeping the guest list small" then I doubt people will think anything of it. The type of person who would get annoyed or feel alienated that they aren't invited to a wedding when two others were probably isn't worth having as a friend anyway, TBH. Maybe that's a harsh take but it's your day. Whether they get invited or not they should be stoked for you! Invite the people who make you the happiest, are gonna bring good vibes, etc. And if it comes up in the future just say "Yeah, I really wish we could have had more people but the guest list had to be tight." People get it in my limited experience (planning my own for this summer - and as a person with friends where I've not been invited to the wedding LOL).
6 days to go! Everything is coming together nicely but the anxiety is really starting to creep in about how the day will go, whether or not we forgot anything, etc. I was even able to nail down the playlist that we wanted. Curated from scratch and put together in such a way that at least 25% of it will make a given demo really happy. And when you're dealing with the actual olds, Gen X, a swath of millennials, and some Gen Z? I dunno, man. That's the best you can do unless you want to go full-blown generic (which is what my partner specifically instructed me to avoid LOL). It was a fun exercise. But halfway through I started to realize what you're really paying the wedding DJ for. People have been asking me what I'm most excited to do after the wedding. And beyond the initial layer of just starting our life together and all that? "Listen to music without feeling stress." LOL