Ceremony and Reception months apart?

First- congrats on your engagement. Secondly, a courthouse ceremony IS a REAL ceremony. It is extremely insulting and rude to say that people who get married at the courthouse aren't having a real ceremony. I got married in a REAL courthouse ceremony and 29 years later we are still married, so it is real.

If you want to get married at the courthouse and have the PARTY later, that is perfectly fine, however, the reception- party will not be a wedding, it will then be a celebration of marriage or a vow renewal. You need to make sure that your guests know it is a celebration of marriage and not a wedding. You also will forgo all the pre-wedding events, as those occur prior to the marriage.

You can still have the traditional ceremony on 3/21 but it will have to be a scaled-down event based on your original post with the money challenges.

If you really want your wedding to be on your dating anniversary (which I totally get - we did the same thing!), I would either do the courthouse ceremony now and have the big celebration later, or just wait and get married in 2025! If you wait another year, it will give you lots of time to save money and plan the more traditional wedding you're wanting.