Planning a Dinner the day before the Ceremony

You are all so helpful and I just was curious what you think.


We are eloping with 15 family members to a small beach town a few hours away in California. It is a very casual wedding with no frills.
Here’s the deal. Everyone will be coming to town the day before the wedding, and I want to have a sit down dinner where everyone dresses up (like a reception dinner) the night before the wedding.
The main reasons:1. We have no photographer. We are passing out cameras and having everyone take photos of themselves and of us. The sunset is AMAZING (main reason we love it there) and varies every day and I want to make sure to get photos of us and of our family in front of the sunset and not be rushed. Thinking about having ceremony at 4pm and sunset photos at 5:30. Changing real quick and getting 30 mins alone with my husband and then drinking, listening to music and having a bonfire on the beach and playing giant lawn games for the rest of the night. 2. I don’t want myself and my family to be starving during pictures and before we actually can sit down and get food. I want good pictures!3.i don’t want to go to a sit down dinner in my wedding dress. It will be uncomfortable and I want to be able to change into a different dress or outfit. There is only a few of us so we are just going to make normal reservations for dinner, there is no wedding reception, and I don’t want to walk in with a wedding dress. 4.I want to 100% make sure everyone is there the day before so make sure everyone is there on time. Ceremony falls right on hotel check in time. I don’t want to not plan something the night before and people think they can save one night hotel fee and come the day of my wedding and completely ruin all of my plans for that day. 5. I don’t want to make a reservation and miss it because we take too long taking pictures.

I have no money and I’ve done the best bang for my buck and the best I can do to make this day memorable. Since we only have a couple people coming in doing it all myself and will not have any coordinator etc. My mom will marry us, my father in law will pay for the dinner and order food for after the ceremony. Do you think that I should just hope everyone come the day before and hang out that night and then go to formal dinner after the ceremony the next night?Thank you.Gina