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Dedicated October 2023

Elopement then reception weeks later

Ggreer14, on December 13, 2020 at 8:41 AM Posted in Planning 0 10
My fiancé and I were thinking about going ahead and getting married and then planning a reception later. It would save money and we just had a newborn, I’m honestly kind of antsy and just wanna be married to him already lol. Our families are very informal so they wouldn’t really care if there was no ceremony, cause most the time people really are looking forward to the reception. Just wanna know how I should approach it on the day of the reception. When people are there and have settled in should I make an announcement thanking everyone for coming? How should I go about it the day of? Anyone been to a ‘post-elopement’ party like this? (Btw I would word it as a post elopement party rather than a wedding, because that’s basically what it is)

10 Comments

Latest activity by Lauren, on March 27, 2021 at 12:08 PM
  • Mrs. Spring
    Master April 2021
    Mrs. Spring ·
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    You could word it as a vow renewal or a wedding reception.
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  • Erin
    VIP September 2023
    Erin ·
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    My husband and I got married on Friday and we’re doing a vow renewal in 2 years with all of our friends and family. That way we have time for covid to hopefully end so we can have the party we really want. If you just want to hold a reception, then just say “reception to follow at a later date” or something like that.
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  • Nicole
    Master September 2020
    Nicole ·
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    My husband and I got married in September when our original (and 2nd and 3rd plan changes) didn’t work. We’ll have a reception next November when it’s hopefully safer to have large gatherings. I plan on treating it almost as if it were a reception right after a ceremony, except we won’t have any of the traditional dances. Guests will arrive and enjoy appetizers and cocktail hour, though we’ll be mingling as well. We’ll probably do an entrance once everyone is seated for dinner so our wedding party (who weren’t at our marriage ceremony) can also be recognized. Then just a big, fun party after that. We’ll thank everyone for celebrating with us in this unorthodox way in a speech before/after we cut our cake.
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  • J
    Master 0000
    Judith ·
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    If your families don't much care about the ceremony, great. Have a delayed reception, everyone knows why. It will be on the announcement card you send everyone you know the day after ( or ASAP) your marriage, that will say full names and titles after Marriage, what, when where. As in: Mr. James Arthur Kelley & Ms. Susan Harrison Jones are pleased to announce that they were married at Pleasanton City Hall on July 6, 2021.
    We will be scheduling a delayed reception in the future. ... Or similar, you can look up announcement formats. these can be sent to anyone, not just those you will invite. People want to know the title and full name you will be using. His last name and her last name are hard to predict, and many drop a middle name and keep their birth surname as middle. And Ms. vs Mrs., either is appropriate after marriage but which will you use. This will be for the news, but also to update address books. Having sent this, they will expect a delayed reception, and it won't be awkward when inviting them. Have you done birth announcements yet?

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  • Michelle
    Master April 2021
    Michelle ·
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    There’s so many cute ideas you can do with this! Previous people have hit a lot of good ones! Wedding:The Sequel!
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  • L
    Dedicated August 2021
    Lw ·
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    I love calling it a post-elopement party and doing an entrance like PP said. I personally am not sending out announcements but I think announce or calling it a post-elopement party would get the point across. I’d so do the entrance and any other typical wedding things and then thank the guests for coming/have speeches/whatever. It’s 2020. Everyone understands and it sounds like your family is just happy to celebrate love.
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  • Yasmine
    Master October 2020
    Yasmine ·
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    My husband and I had a minimony in October and we are doing our big celebration in March 2021. We're doing everything as if it were a first wedding though (big dress, bridal party, ceremony etc). All of our guests are excited!
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  • G
    Dedicated October 2023
    Ggreer14 ·
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    That’s awesome! Are you guys doing a grand entrance or anything like that? We don’t really wanna do a “grand” entrance but still wanna establish ourselves with our guests and thank everyone for joining us
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  • Yasmine
    Master October 2020
    Yasmine ·
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    Yes we're doing everything! My dad will be walking me down the aisle still, still having the processional, reception entrance etc
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  • Lauren
    Beginner June 2021
    Lauren ·
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    We’re doing this too! My father in law really wanted to host our reception. We sent out invitations to our families about it. Look online, there’s some great cheap templates. We did tell our families about our elopement ahead of time too, so they weren’t completely caught off guard with our invitation.
    Our invitations announced our wedding date and invited them to a wedding celebration!
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