Reception is cancelled

What if you just go out to lunch or dinner with the wedding party and your immediate family following the ceremony? It's not the perfect situation but at least you can celebrate a little. Or you could grill out in the park or in someone's backyard.

CC's Pizza Buffet with salad, pasta, and pizza plus it's super cheap.

You could do something small like A BBQ or something in a park too. Or just cake and punch in a public park. Super cheap but something simple so you can mingle after the wedding

I know how disappointed you must be. But, at least with the money you do have you can have a great honeymoon and then maybe do a vow renewal next year where you can have everyone join you in celebration!

Actually great idea Linda! Better Honeymoon! I love your positive outlook

We will probably end up having cake at our house, and going out drinking after haha. I agree..it is not the ideal situation, we are the first to get marries on either side...it would have been awesome to have the whole sha-bang.

I think you should go ahead and do the reception that you can afford and since you guys are paying for it you and FH have the final say about who is/isn't invited. Sure it would be nice to invite everyone in family when it's financially possible but if you have a set limit you should invite the people that are closetest to YOU and FH, not your second cousin on your brother in laws grandmother's side just because they are family.

I agree with ester, your paying so invite who you want and don't feel bad about Not inviting great aunt sue or your 2nd cousin that you don't like

if you cant make up your minds still then do a close family, (parents, sisters, brothers grand parents) and wedding party

we are having only close family and wedding party and then having a BBQ 1 wk later for everyone else

Send out B.Y.O.B invitations, asking your guests to donate food also if they can make it..... Only send it to you guy's Parents

I agree with Ester. DO NOT let others dictate your wedding or your guest list if they are not helping you pay. If you can afford to do something smaller with just your immediate fam and closest friends then do that and do not feel overwhelmed by the fact you simply can not afford to invite everyone you'd wish to invite if money wasn't an option. Every bride on this forum has had to cut cut and cut some more in regards to guest list. There has to be a line drawn in order to make it happen for you. Please don't give up on your celebration, even if it is just you and a few others at a nice restaurant afterwards for dinner and drinks.

I'm sure you are very upset and torn at this point. I ran into the same problem and would like to share with you what we decided to do. If we invite our entire family, friends, friends of the families, co-workers, and church we were looking at close to 250 people. Since we are not rich by any means and neither of our families are contributing any money I put my foot down. I informed my family I will be inviting to MY wedding those in this family I am close too, who have always been there for me, and will always continue to be in my life not just on special occasions... that said that is about 25 peopleout of 80... I told our Pastor(my FH is the assoc Pastor) as much as we would love to have everyone that is not possible and that they are more then welcome to come to the ceremony however our reception is private will the exception of a few ppl... all total our list went from 250 to 70. We rented an Italin restaraunt and will have a lovely reception. At the cost of under $2000 total

Do what's best for you. In the end, you'll have to live with the choices. Don't go into debt to make your parents happy. If your own parents won't return phone calls after 3 weeks, that should tell you where their priorities are.

The interesting thing about most of the weddings that I've been a part of is that they can either be REALLY small (several best friends, immediate family) or gigantic (every cousin with a plus one, family friends, work budddies and all the kids).

On of my weddings this weekend is 24 guests in a tiny sweet restaurant; it'll be wonderful. It's only the people that are the very closest to the couple, the way it will work out the bet for them and their budget. It's still a dream wedding.

Thank you all for the words of wisdom...support has been in short supply lately lol. I am definitely giving a lot of consideration to everyone's experiences.

Had you already sent out the invitations/RSVP? I am in the same dilemma, but people have already RSVP'd, etc. The same exact reasons for canceling. We just want to be married!