Advice: Officially married first

I think the celebration of marriage idea captures the meaning and intent of the event well. If you're doing a wedding website you could add something like "come and help us celebrate our recent exchange vows on ...(date)". I don't think it's necessary to explain in detail.

My very best healthy wishes tor your MIL

Firstly I m so sorry to hear about your partner’s mom, cancer really stinks. It can be so hard to go through life’s happiest and saddest moments simultaneously. Allow yourselves to feel all the emotions. It is ok to not be ok and it is ok to have joyous moments during a difficult time.

Something similar happened with my best friend’s dad, her wedding was fully planned for October but June of that same year it became very obvious he would not make it to the October date. She ended up getting married on her parents front lawn at the end of June. Her dad s friend was a judge and he married them, the guest list was the grooms immediate family and the brides immediate family, the moh and best man, and anyone the dad wanted to see one last time. I don’t think there were more than 30 people there. She had her hair and makeup trials that morning and bought a beautiful short white dress from a department store ( she actually ended up using it as a reception dress at the October weddding) . The best man’s gf dabbled in photography and took the most beautiful photos, she cherishes those so much. Food was ordered from the dads favorite Italian restaurant and so much love and laughter was shared that day. Her father passed maybe 2 weeks later. By far one of the most touching and special moments I have ever witnessed.

In October they had the big wedding and changed nothing. The invites had already been ordered so nothing was changed with those. She didn’t keep it a secret that they wed legally in June and everyone knew the reason why. I remember she was worried people would treat the October wedding differently and I said to her life doesn’t always go as planned and honestly if anyone gives you a hard time about this given the circumstances maybe they don’t need to be at your wedding. She announced the June wedding on Facebook and everyone already knew that her dad was very ill so it wasn’t a huge shock. In the post she said something like When life gives you lemons we get married fast, we said I do this weekend because my dad doesn’t have much time and I needed him there. I hope everyone understands why we had to keep it very intimate but we are still so excited to celebrate our love with you in October. Thank you for all the love during this crazy time it really means so much and we are so grateful for our village. People were very kind about it .

You do whatever you and your fiancée need to do during this difficult time your friends and family will understand and rally around you. And those that don’t well that’s a them issue. Try not stress about the wording in the big picture it’s not what is important. I hope you get to make some really special memories with your fiancée s mom.

Wishing you the best 🩷