Receptions after Restricted Wedding

Soooo. Honest question: why do you feel you will be boring people with the traditional wedding stuff?

The past months have been... challenging... to say the least for people celebrating life's biggest events.

You wanting and planning an "open" wedding reception sounds fabulous and a great way to move on in life! If it makes you feel better, there are a lot of cultures in which it is perfectly acceptable.

I truly believe that your guests, the people you love enough to invite and those who care enough about you to attend, will not be bored. They will love being there and celebrating with you. They will NOT be philosophizing whether you SHOULD be doing something or whether it is totally gauche. THAT behavior is reserved for perfect strangers on wedding forums. 😉

What makes you think people would be bored? What was you wedding like? What gives you the idea it is unacceptable? Talk to me.

A very inquiring mind wants to know.

Then accept you are being irrational. 😱😀

I get it. Really, I do. You are completely out of your "element" and feel like you're going against all things bridal etiquetty.... Too much time listening to "well-meaning" judgements on wedding websites and magazines/tv.

I have yet to meet any of "those people" in real life.

Enjoy your planning and call it what.ever.you.want!

I hereby (unasked and unknown) absolve you from all feelings of being tacky and authorize you to have FUN on your day your way! 😉

Do it! I just read up on your ideas on your profile... Sounds fabulous! They will love it!

You won't be boring people - you can still do all the traditional reception things!! It's completely up to you! ❤️

You should check out some of the recent weddings shared in the forums to see how other couples have been celebrating:

BAM! Last week's wedding photos, engagement pictures, and more! 📷

We did the same! Tiny Zoom wedding last October, big reception this October.

We're stuck between doing a quick vow renewal - just like a "normal" wedding with the precessional, and then pictures during cocktail hour, then dinner and dancing and cake cutting etc.

On the other hand, we're also thinking of JUST the reception. Everybody arrives, we burst in as husband and wife, and commence the activities.

You do what you want to do! I think most people are just excited to go back to weddings again.

I feel ya. I know someone said they've yet to meet haters in real life, but I have a whole family of them who think it's dumb I'm doing a big party.

But to heck with them! I feel like it's the thing that happens with kids who don't want to go somewhere, and then they get there and have a great time and are super glad they went! IT'S YOUR WEDDING! Plan the party you want and focus on only that rather than what you think others are saying. Plus, after 2020, people are ready to party and get back to some normalcy.

For our reception, we're doing all the traditional stuff and then some! My family has a tradition of making up a dance to "dance the spouse into the family" so that's happening.

We are having a destination wedding, so we are doing a photo scavenger hunt starting when people leave for the wedding up to the ceremony. It's a great way to get people exploring the destination, plus you get amazing extra photos of your special day/weekend. I found a website that will aggregate all the photos of an Instagram hashtag so we can easily show all the photos during the reception without someone having to create a slideshow (slidekitty.com) It's going to be a great party!

TL;DR: do what you want, make the memories you want. Congrats and good luck!