Brides who are having a small ceremony and a large wedding

I am saving my dress for the big wedding! Also plan on writing our own vows for it, but keeping the ceremony the same otherwise. Will do a first dance at both, but save other dances for big wedding. Big wedding will also have larger cake, videographer, etc

That sounds like what you've got planned is pretty special. you can also have a send off too!

Everyone's different! For me, the day we actually get married is more important than the celebration later.. so I plan to write my own vows and wear my original dress this year. I'll probably buy another dress for next year and we will have a more "casual" ceremony next year- not sure what that will entail but maybe some references to how we have already been married for 1 year and made it through these pandemic struggles together, etc. Also probably not going to exchange rings again since we would have already been wearing them for 1 year. It will be more of a renewal ceremony.

So our elopement is going to be just the two of us with a very short ceremony. I have picked a different reading than what I want for the big ceremony. Next year's wedding will have all the religious elements we are cutting out from this year. The big ceremony will we will have a wedding party and my parents will walk me down the aisle. We are going to do rings both times, but we are thinking to have different rings for each. Since we have silicone rings they aren't very expensive to start with. I will be wearing my reception dress for the elopement and keeping my big dress for next year. We are going to have a small cake this year with a bigger, and like different flavored, cake next year.