We had our wedding timeline laid out for 1 stop venue with our ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception taking place there. However, my FH who is Catholic (I'm non-denom) realized that he really wanted our marriage to be recognized by the church. Originally that’s what I wanted too but because of logistics (most of our guests will be coming from out of town) we settled on just the hotel/venue.
My FH decided to look into it though and honestly the preparation process has made me really step back and realize how big and amazing of a step we’re taking instead of just feeling like I’m planning a really expensive party where I get to wear a tiara! Now we’re trying to decide if we should have an immediate family only ceremony Friday evening at the church and then do a second ceremony on Saturday as planned. Or whether we should have one ceremony at the church followed by the reception at the venue.
We both feel sentimental about the idea of having one ceremony, but we’re worried about how much it will inconvenience our out of town guests, since the latest we’d be able to have the wedding at the church would be 3:30pm and of course hotel check-ins are usually around 3pm. Then I’d have to move the timeline of the reception to end at 10pm vs. the originally planned midnight. However, if I do the ceremony on Friday, I feel like I will have to spend money on another dress (even if simpler), hair, makeup, photographer, and etc. Only to do the same thing again the very next day which just feels weird to do. We would be exchanging the same rings twice... And of course we're dealing with a variety of opinions. Any ideas! 1 or 2?