Ideas for after the wedding besides the traditional reception?

You might also want to look at Simply Eloped! Have your ceremony somewhere beautiful, you get a photographer, a bouquet and it's 20 people or less. We considered them until I decided I wanted to be married in a city they didn't offer their packages in. Very affordable!

I would take your guests out to dinner afterwards. Maybe make arrangements for a private room in a restaurant?

View Quoted Comment

I haven't heard of them yet. Thanks! I'll look into them as well!

View Quoted Comment

Yes, I was thinking that. Does anyone have any ideas for a good restaurant for this on Oahu?

You can book your wedding through the wedding department at a resort. You can have your ceremony on the beach and then book dinner reservations through the resort's wedding coordinator that is working with you.

Arrange for your guests to attend a luau after the wedding.

My friend is getting married in two weeks. They are having a super small ceremony in the park, grabbing lunch afterwards, going axe throwing, then hitting some bars. It’s definitely different and we actually aren’t dreading traveling for another wedding!

Just make sure to keep in mind that your close friends and family may not want to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars and their PTO time on a holiday of your choosing, not theirs (if they're actually physically and financially able to come, that is).

Hello fellow San Diegan/ eloping couple! Vicky mentioned this in her response- you may want to put feelers out there to determine whether or not your guests are able to (financially and work wise) attend a destination wedding. There are some STUNNNNING places in and around San Diego/ SoCal to elope to! (Beaches, mountains). Regardless of what you and your boo choose to do, love an intimate elopement! Not sure if you’re planning on attending the bridal bizarre at the convention center, but it may be worth checking out! I have attached the link xx
http://bridalbazaar.com/

We had a destination wedding to Mexico with 15 people. We had the ceremony at 5pm followed by a cocktail hour and dinner party. We had music playing but no official dance floor. My husband and i danced and we danced with our parents as well but there really wasn’t ‘dance music’ playing. People ate and drank and socialized. ((We did however play our siblings ‘wedding songs’ so they had the opportunity to dance if they wanted to))


We arent ‘traditional wedding people’. We didn’t have a bridal shower, we had no bridal party and no registry. We threw a welcome party Friday night with tacos and a bonfire on the beach and then had a ceremony/dinner party Saturday. Honestly, it couldn’t have been more ‘us’ and our guests said the same.

Follow up:
Taco party. Ceremony. Dinner party.

We had 15 guests too! We live in Orange County but did a DW in Napa (inexpensive flight or 8-hour drive for most guests). No DJ or dancing for us either. For the “fun” aspect we had a Disney pirates inspired reception in a wine cave with a strolling accordionist who played sea shanties during cocktail hour (we switched to background music during dinner). We had a family style dinner and premium bar which was great.

There are so many amazing places in SD! What about the SD Zoo? What a totally fun & unique venue. Not sure if USS Midway does weddings but also unique. Or you could do a muli-course food & wine tasting dinner at a private room of the stunning Grand Del Mar. Hawaii would be awesome but very expensive for guests (flight, hotel, etc).

Taking everyone out to dinner.

A destination wedding offers much more than just a wedding ceremony. Is a family vacation and lots of bonding time with multiple things to do for everyone. Keep in mind that not everyone in your group might be able to afford this. I had a destination wedding and I would do it again no doubt but I did have people that I wished were there with us but couldn’t make it.
As for not the usual, I’ll do dinner after ceremony and pictures. One long table by the beach would be pretty and then you can have a hangout spot at the beach with some background music just to chill and talk. I don’t know what you’re into but there can be fun games, karaoke. Our welcome party was a white party by the beach and it was so fun. We had music and dance but we all like dancing.

We are doing something similar in Sedona. Having the ceremony outdoors and taking photos around the red rocks and up a Jeep trail and then we rented a large cabin for the weekend for our immediate family to hang out and play games and grill out. Small and intimate! No DJ, or fancy napkins. Just us.