Before-wedding Reception

Hey y’all, so I guess I’m just here to get thoughts and opinions on a plan I have floating around in my head.

My fiancé and I are beginning to talk about what we want to do for our wedding, and a lot of ideas are floating around. The timeline of our wedding is super important for this discussion. I will be graduating college in three years. I want to be married and moved to Orlando, Florida within two weeks to a month of me graduating. We are from Illinois, so the move is very permanent and very far.

We are toying with the idea of a Disney World Wedding in Orlando right after we move, but as they are very expensive, we would be looking at the Escape package which allows for a maximum of 18 guests. My fiancé has quite a bit of extended family, and I am in a sorority so I have quite a bit of close friends. Obviously they all can’t be invited to our wedding with such a limited number of guests allowed.

Since we are moving to Orlando, it makes zero sense to come back to Illinois for an After-the-Wedding Reception. My idea is to have a going away party, graduation party, and wedding reception all rolled into a casual party before we move and get married. Family friends could cook some BBQ buffet style, we could buy a bunch of booze and just have it out for self serve, and have a phone and speaker playing music. This would allow us to celebrate with our family and friends without spending a small fortune (for young 20s) on a huge reception.


Since we are moving across the country, we wouldn’t have a bridal shower because we don’t want to have to pack even more stuff in just our two cars (we are trying to NOT rent a U-Haul for the big move). The lack of bridal shower would eliminate the “don’t invite anyone to pre-wedding events if they’re not invited to the wedding” rule I would think. Also the uniqueness of our situation would hopefully ease any “break of etiquette” we would be doing with the whole timeline.

My mom has said she believes this is a good idea, and she is a very formal lady when it comes to etiquette and weddings, but understands the need for compromise in this unique situation and timeline. Does anyone think this could hurt anyone’s feelings? At the end of the day it’s our wedding and our money being spent, I just don’t want to leave anyone upset with us as we move across the country.