Mini ceremony now, reception next year?

We are considering doing something similar but just eloping without anyone else. I don’t want to take away from the “big” wedding so it can feel a bit more special too but that is me

The plan sounds good as you seem to know the date is meaningful to you both and celebrating your Anniversary rather than Reception with everyone. A video can be made and posted on YouTube or social media for everyone to see if that is something you want to do. They can share your moment as it happens to view as they get the time.

View quoted message

We're just calling it a reception because we don't plan on renewing our vows or reenacting the ceremony. But you can call it whatever you want! If people are confused by whatever you go with you can include a little explanation on your wedding website so they understand what it's going to be like.

Regardless of what happens, we're live streaming our wedding ceremony because we know we won't have our original 250 guest list. Even if guests can't watch live, they can access the stream at a later time.

Hey Girl,
I actually did this exactly. We were supposed to get married July 2020 then postponed to June 2021 and NOW postponed our (big) wedding July 2022.
We did decide to get married regardless as we were losing that "excitement" and wanted to start a family, so we got married in our home with just parents and siblings along with our MOH and BM - we then zoomed the wedding and projected the screen on a wall in our family room where we were getting married so everyone could be a part of that day, because although it wasn't BIG the way we planned, that day is STILL the day we got married and became Husband and Wife so the meaning is STILL there.
I honestly LOVED IT so much and would do it again 100% we had food catered in, booze galore and we were with the people we loved the most and it was so intimate. We were actually able to spend time with our parents and siblings as opposed to our big wedding day where I know that will be HARD if not Impossible to do.
I think it was a great choice, and I urge other brides to do it if they are thinking about it, I don't think you will regret it !

We will do a wedding ceremony next year and just renew our vows, this way it feels just the same for us & hopefully have a baby with us to hold during it !

If you do a small ceremony this year and the big party next year, what do you call that? Vow renewal? Reception?

View quoted message I know my grandparents will want to see and probably aunts so all extended family. So then do I just share it with all guests?
I don’t like being the centre of attention or videoed but I know it’s important to them.

We are doing this for ours in 2022. Regardless of what happens with vaccines we always just wanted our immediate family there for our wedding and then a bigger party (+/-70 people) to celebrate. I come from a pretty big family and my partner is not a fan of being the center of attention.
So "Destination" wedding with our parents and siblings (and their partners) at our family cottage and then a party in 2023 hopefully in and around our first anniversary.

View quoted message We kept the whole thing to immediate family and our wedding party, so the Zoom invite went to my brother, my husband's parents, and one friend who would have been in the wedding. We hadn't sent out invites yet, so we only had a few guests who got their save the dates that we had to "uninvite".


We recorded the zoom and showed the video to my husband's grandmothers. My husband felt that if we sent a link they wouldn't be tech savvy enough to figure it out or they would invite the whole nursing home to watch which he was not into. I had asked a friend with videography equipment to record it and they forgot on the day (honestly this is fine because I hate watching recordings of myself).

View quoted message

We got engaged in February 2020 and planned for July 2021 all along. We were hoping rules and restrictions would loosen a bit, especially with the vaccine. Unfortunately that is not the case in Ontario. We have said all along we want to go ahead with what we can on our original date. With things still being so uncertain, we don't want to regret not being able to invite certain people and such.

Glad it all turned out for you! 2022 should be much better.

View quoted message

Yes, our extra fees would be very minimal just floral and food.

Glad it was still special!

View quoted message

We are currently making the same decision.

I've been pretty stressed the last few weeks, but honestly I already feel better!

View quoted message

Who did you invite to the zoom? We are talking about live streaming or sharing a video for extended family (especially grandparents) but do we just open it up to all the original guests?

We plan to still get dressed up and do pictures, we'll do the same next year too. Thanks for sharing your regret, something for us to consider.

Happy it all turned out!

We are doing this, postponed from last August to April 16th. We are having bridal party & immediate family at the church, and pushed the reception to October in hopes a few more restrictions can be eased with vaccines rolling out.
It did come with paying twice for a few things like bouquets & a limo but we are a lot less stressed this way & can truly enjoy the ceremony without all the extra stress.

I am doing exactly this for my wedding this July. We are having our ceremony this year with how ever many people we can get with the regulations and we are having our big reception next year. I am also taking all my photos and videos this year and next year so I can have both to remember by. My FH and I were sad obviously but we are just so excited to get married and we have a lot of relief to not need to worry about our reception now which obviously costs the most money

We had a small ceremony in October, and we hope to have our reception this October on our anniversary.


Honestly I wouldn't change much! We were missing a few important family members who couldn't travel, so they watched the ceremony via zoom. My husband has talked about how happy he is that we had such a small and intimate day with less stress and expense. We still got dressed up, and had photos done (one small regret is not having the photographer for longer, we didn't have her come to the reception to save hours for next year), and we had a small reception with a cake and finger food and drinks.

A lot of people on here had small weddings last year and earlier this year and are planning for a reception down the road. Here's a link to a thread you might find useful (I also linked to other threads you should check out): https://community.weddingwire.ca/forums/still-getting-married-but-pushing-reception--t46007

Speaking just for myself, I'm really glad we didn't postpone our ceremony. Trying to plan our wedding was so stressful due to covid and we knew we weren't going to be able to have the reception we wanted until at least 2022. Deciding to get married no matter what on our original date the stress off and we had plans for every scenario from having both of our families there to just eloping, depending on restrictions. It was also just nice to have something to look forward to during covid and it was definitely the highlight of 2020 for us.