Military Deployment Wedding

Back in June, my other half popped the question! And then got orders to deploy for a year with follow-on orders for us to move to Germany, right after he returns home. Instead of eloping or staying engaged and waiting the year to get married, just to have to deal with the headache of doing the mountain of military paperwork in only 30 days... we opted to do a simple ceremony with immediate family only, to legalize everything before the deployment and plan for the traditional wedding when he gets home. Before anyone mentions it, yes we have thought about "just doing a reception" or "taking a trip with the money we'd have used, instead!" and no, that is not what we want to do. We want a formal ceremony and reception, like any other traditional wedding. NOW, I'm planning the 2nd wedding and have received some critical, negative feedback from a few family members and friends on it being a "fake wedding." HOW do I word all of this? To them, and also in the save the dates and invitations?