What defines a wedding?

Yep, that’s what they mean. Totally demeaning to couples who have simple courthouse ceremonies or elope.

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I completely agree, Caytlyn. Just because you didn't have a large party where there were tens, if not hundreds, of witnesses, doesn't mean you didn't have a wedding. It's one of my biggest vocabulary pet peeves from this past year (coming from someone who got married during COVID). Feel free to have a reception, vow renewal, party, etc. but please don't call it a wedding because that ship has sailed!

A wedding is getting married to me! No party needed. I think they should say they didnt have a reception

Yeah, I'm with y'all on this one. The wedding is the bit where you get married, and therefore it's not possible to be married and not have had a wedding. You can totally have a wedding but not a reception or party though.

Of course thats what it means. Theres absolutely no need to have a party to accompany your marriage. Society has made us believe that people who choose not to do that are missing something. Not the case

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That's what I've always thought too.

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Yup, this.

A wedding is a marriage ceremony. How you want to conduct yours is up to you.

Some prefer a large, all-out kind of celebration, some would rather have something small. Both are weddings.

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Agree with you on this

Language changes sometimes, and there are always regional and social differences in the way we express things.
Most people know what someone means when they say “we didn’t have a wedding, we went to the courthouse.” They don’t mean they didn’t get married, they mean that there weren’t any associated gatherings.
I’ve never known anyone to denigrate someone who got married at a courthouse to say their marriage is not as important. I lived a lot of my life in the military and then around academics and people often marry at the courthouse if travel plans come up, visas are an issue, or someone got tenure, or health insurance...I have seem some not nice people suggest having a wedding is a waste or silly - but there are curmudgeons everywhere. My first marriage was at a courthouse, it lasted 20 years, and halfway through we had a catholic wedding that was just us, the witness, our daughter and the priest. No big party involved (maybe we went to dinner after, I was big pregnant!) but it was in the church so wedding would probably be the right word. For this type of evolving language I try to not attribute to malice what is probably just ignorance.

My first "marriage" we never had a wedding or went to the JP. We were common law married.