Courthouse Wedding planning

Hey Britt!

By including your entire 80 person guest lists for your courthouse ceremony, you will most likely end up not saving that much money as there is a lot involved in hosting that many guests. You could most likely have to plan a meal to show your appreciation to them for coming and a venue to have this meal in.

If your plan is to save money now, I would go with a smaller guest list and then plan a reception/anniversary party in time once you can afford to have the party you want.

Now heres my question... If you get married at a courthouse and then decide to get married down the road with an actual ceremony what do you celebrate as your date? I ask because FH and I almost did this because TN doesn't recognize mail in ordains and my FH was set on his lifelong best friend marrying us. So we were going to get married the Friday before the wedding itself and not tell anyone and act as though that Sunday was our actual wedding but I started having anxiety about what date to go by... long story short we solved our problem with still having our friend marry us and have a minister on site and acknowledge the union in the eyes of teh churches.. But besides that I agree with Sinead, I think if you try to host 80 people you won't receive many savings... Have you already placed deposits and what not?

I'm getting married on Monday 06/17/2019 at the courthouse and then going out to eat later with family and friends who were there. While saving for our big wedding in 2 yrs which is a vow renewal to some but a first wedding to others since some of the family members don't know. Since it is /spring about to be summer time you can do the courthouse and then have a little BBQ to celebrate with family and friends. I'm not really big on Big weddings and shelling out a lot of money. Small and intimate does it for me. So as long as you have your family and friends you should be fine. Remember its your day. Celebrate how you want and block out the negativity.

I'd double check on the guest count. A friend of mine had a courthouse wedding and they set up chairs for what looked like about 25 people or so. I am positive it cost more than going in alone with a few witnesses.

If you want to save money, you could always find a local wedding officiant to marry you somewhere like a local park, rent out a pavilion for around $50, then have the party there as well the same day. Do easy catering like chipotle or BBQ to save money and you can still wear your dress and you don't have much to decorate at the park.

Another option is the courthouse ceremony then a dinner afterwards with those who could not make the ceremony.

Overall 80 people isn't too many but if you are really tight on money I'd do a small elopement with a local officiant or in the courthouse then have a larger vow renewal down the road.

Well with no deposits and the wedding that close I think you would be okay doing the courthouse wedding. What i would recommend is doing a courthouse wedding with just immediate family and close friends. Then maybe look into renting a banquet hall at like a VFW or moose lodge (they're usually $100) and just have some cheap food (deli sandwiches and what not) to have all the other 80 people come celebrate for honestly. My best friend got married on a cruise. There was me and our good friend Steve and then immediate family of her and her husband. In total maybe 20 people. We had a great time and then when we got back they did their reception at a VFW and had all the family and friends that weren't invited to the ceremony. They said the party cost maybe $500 and it was a few weeks after the wedding so it was a huge saver.

Our wedding is a destination wedding and our guest list is still 100 people but we left A LOT of people off the list and chose destination so a lot of people didn't get upset about not being invited and so we didn't have any random show ups. My parents plan on throwing a big party after the wedding when everyone comes back into town with all their friends so they can celebrate our wedding too!

Also, it seems like you didn't really have a date truly because there was no invitations so if the wedding is important you can always just push it since you aren't losing any money and won't need to redo and resend invitations so thats always an option if you did want to do a bigger wedding somewhere and just needed more time to pay for it?

We are getting married in a restaurant next year with just 25-30 of our close family members.

I would not recommend including your entire 80 person guest list, especially because a lot of courthouses do limit the number of people you can have (we looked into the Boston courthouse and I know they limit you to 2 people and 1 photographer). There is no rehearsal when you get married at the courthouse, the ceremony is just standard and I believe most of them do let you bring your own vows in if you like. When it comes to scheduling many courthouses do take "reservations" with a date and time, but keep in mind that time is exact, most do not allow any late arrivals.

Personally, we decided against the courthouse as it was important to both our parents that they be able to witness the ceremony, but we did look into a local park like Kelly had said (I was just too petrified of the weather cooperating where we live) and it was just a $25 permit and our state does allow you to ordain anyone for one day if we had wanted a family member/friend to marry us.

When it comes to your dress, I think you should wear whatever you want to wear as it is your wedding day!

Ahh... at least thats a smaller cost to recoup :/ sorry that sucks.

We did a courthouse wedding on November 5th, 2018 and will be doing a big church ceremony on our one year anniversary! At "courthouse" wedding, we eloped on the river with a civil officiant and only my brother attended. It was super romantic at sunset and I was very private, which we wanted. Now, we are having a 100 person celebration with everybody and all of the bells and whistles! I wore a white dress that was a repurposed prom dress and nobody thought I was too dressed up.

The whole process of a courthouse wedding is different in every state. In Virginia, where we eloped, we had to go in on a weekday (mon-fri) and fill out the application to get married. After that is approved (almost immediatly), you will then find an officiant from the counties list. Then you make the arrangement with the officiant! Mine suggested Rockett's Landing because it was such a beautiful spot on the river. We met the same night we got our application approved and he signed our marriage license, which we had to bring back to the courthouse and they notorized it. After that, we waited for about a month to get our official marriage license in the mail!

The next day after that, I went to the SSN office and applied to change my name and get a new SS card!

I hope it all goes well for you and I hope you get exactly what you want! And it is always possible to wait and do it when you have money. People don't mind as long as you celebrate with them at some point!