Invitation wording if had a private courthouse legal marriage during Covid.

I think I'm confused. Are you thinking to invite people to your wedding without them knowing you're already married?

People were invited to celebrate our marriage instead of being invited to our wedding, but everyone knew we were already married and we didn't have any kind of ceremony this year. If you're set on keeping it a secret, just call it a wedding. No one cares about watching you sign the marriage license, so they won't notice when you don't do it.

View Quoted Comment Yes we are.

I think your guests have the right to know what they're there to witness though. Do you really want to start out your lives by deceiving everyone about this? Ethically I think it's best to be honest. I've seen soooo many stories where the guests find out after the fact and it's just never good.

I would let people know you're married and would like to invite them to help you celebrate that. If you want you could do a vow renewal as well.

People will tell you you can call it anything you want, and this is technically true. But words have meaning and a marriage describes your relationship after you get married. A wedding is the event at which you get married.

I wouldn't get too hung up on trying to reinvent the terms for something that everyone already understands. It's also VERY common, thanks to COVID, for people to get married privately and have a celebration later. Your guests will understand and still be happy to celebrate with you, but your life will be easier if you don't try to keep secrets or reinvent the wheel.

Tell people you are legally married. In your invitations you can say that you have already had the ceremony to make it legal, but will not feel truly married until you stand up before friends and family and celebrate your wedding with everyone. . This is how half of Europe does it now that they have separated legal office form signing from church or public civil weddings. And is now common in the USA What confused people is when you have had small wedding, dressed in all your finery, and said more than is legally required speech for for vows.

I wouldn't be deceptive. I'd let people know that you've legally wed, but that you're having a "wedding" or marriage celebration - call it what you will. My husband and I legally wed in Dec 2020, but we're having our "to-do" wedding, we're calling it, in Sept. Don't lie, but still do you. Have a lovely day - whatever you decide to do.

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This is the new “norm” of what people are doing post-Covid. They get angry when they are told the legal wedding IS the wedding.

OP, be honest with your guests that you got married and and call it a vow renewal. Being deceptive always backfires.

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Yes, I see the situation, but it's the lying to everyone that I don't think is wise. Lying by omission is setting up false pretences, and being authentic should work out fine. I just can't see a downside to telling the truth.