How to have a ceremony after getting married at the court house??

You will essentially be renewing your wedding vows next year at the ceremony with friends and family. It's not odd at all, alot of couples are doing that now-a-days and you shouldn't care what other people think - all that matters is you are marrying (or re-marrying I guess) your SO.

It's not weird. A lot of people do it. Some people even have two ceremonies. Don't worry

Totally not weird!! i'll be doing it in a month! actually, tomorrow is our 2 year marriage anniversary and in one month we'll have our wedding. we're running it as a blessing of the union ceremony. no one was there with us on the day of our courthouse marriage - it was just the two of us. i am excited to wear a fancy dress and have a "traditional" wedding. we're finally able to have the wedding that we've always dreamed of. had we not waited 2 years, we would not have had the financial stability to do what we wanted. so i wouldn't change anything!! and no one thinks anything of our "situation" (even his uber-conservative family!!)

This is a pic of our "wedding" day 2 years ago!!!!

Jim and Pam from the office did that and I don't know one person who didn't love that episode. :o) Vows are between the two getting married. There's something romantic and about running off to elope before the "ceremony".

Fh and I are planning on doing this. Im planning a normal wedding and everything. Our date is hard to work with because its on a weekday until 2016 so we are having a courthouse ceremony in 2013 and and week later (if planning goes well) our wedding.

Thanks for everyones helpful information! I guess I just felt silly doing the whole walking down the aisle and all in a dress if we, and everyone else knows, that we are already married. We are getting married now for insurance and finances for buying our home and the such. I think the most difficult part is that he could really care less to have a "wedding". I was married before and had a HUGE wedding, but the marriage ended very quickly due to infidility. My fiance says that I've already had a wedding, but I don't think that he gets the emotional toll of that part of my life. That those memories and events belong to others, and no longer to me. I want pretty pictures at a simple event between the both of us with our friends and family, I don't want my only memories of our wedding to be from a friday afternoon going to the court house in jeans and a blouse, ALONE

Months ago we had ran the idea around of renting a beach house in my favorite beach town of Grayton Beach, FL and having everyone that can make it come down and celebrate with us there. But after talking about it, it was going to be expensive, and lots of our family wouldn't be able to afford the time or money to make it down there. So I recently brought up possibly renting a lake house, or event space in Kentucky just outside our home town and having it there. I think I just really wanted something outside, great weather and in nature.The problem will be finding something big enough for everyone, so the lake house might not be an option in that area. I could pull off and plan the wedding of a lifetime, but he will just be stressed out and not into all the planning at ALL, I've told him several times just to forget it all, to keep us from fighting or disagreeing about all of it.

My husband and I did our courthouse wedding on January 5th. We actually had it photographed and filmed to show at the next ceremony... Our friends and family know about it and most of them (save for maybe 2) are still very happy for us and looking forward to "celebrating our marraige" (as we'll put it on our invite probably) in September! It will still be a rather intimate ceremony with no more than 60 close friends and family, but that's all we need.
As for your husband though.. that's a tough one.. we talked about what we wanted before we got married, so we knew we were still going through with the real wedding. That is something you two will have to work out on your own..

It's not weird. We got married on 1/1/12 and we're throwing a huge celebration for family and friends in the fall.

We said the traditional vows for the small ceremony but for the big ceremony we are going write our own vows and say them and do some other things that don't go into a traditional wedding ceremony. This one is for our close family and friends. The first one was for us! :

I'm wearing the dress and he's wearing the tux!

Jessica M- how did you word you wedding invites? that is my issue, and call me a little kid but i want to wear my fun dress and recieve gifts (selfish i know). Please help!!

I and my husband got married in the summer of 2013. My pastor married us. I was ill at that time and needed my fiances health insurance. Our pastor and church members have encouraged us to have the wedding we had planned on 2014 with our friends and family. If you do an internet seach most people are out there telling you you cant have a do over that its selfish etc etc. i think they are the ones being selfish for trying to deny a couple some joy. You have the complete right to celebrate your love. We are calling it our wedding and eveyone is excited about it, even the 90 plus ladies at church are supportive. So take whatever the wedding gurus tell you with a pinch of salt and go ahead and celebrate with your community. We definately are

My fiancé wants to get married before our original wedding day next year. He said we should go to the courthouse, and I have been giving it some thought. I'm thinking we could still have our ceremony in September 2016, but it will be a vow renewal. Reading the comments on here from other ladies have given me a new outlook.

I was chewed out, I've been married for 5 years with 3 children and I was told that a wedding now is selfish and that a honeymoon don't apply to my situation. I'm still having my wedding renewal. Back when we got married we couldn't afford a wedding nor honeymoon so we are so happy to get those memories.

We are wanting to get married now and do a formal ceremony in June. We don't want anyone to know we are getting married now. How does that work when it's time for the ceremony in June?

My fiancé wants us to get married for his birthday 12/18/15 but wants to give us more time to save up money for a ceremony, so we were thinking maybe late July. Can we do that?

I'm honestly doing the same thing! My fiance and I will be married at the court house on May 5th 2017, but on June 1 2018 we are going to have a wedding ceremony with family and friends. Im glad we are not the only ones doing this!

I just got married 5/14/17 in vegas to my husband who ive been with for 8yrs and got one 6yr old boy. We had no family no friends present. We have only told a few people so now we are planning to do a big celebration sometime in the summer 2017 which is a few month from now. Im glad to hear that many people have done this because I felt wierd about having a ceremony and getting a wedding dress for the celebration. Now that i know many people have done what im thinking of doing it doesnt feel wierd at all. Thank you

Who is supposed read the vows at the real ceremony if we decide to get married at the courthouse?

My husband and I have been married 5 years and counting. We had originally planned to get married through the church and have an actual wedding. We decided to take the courthouse route because it fit into our financial situation at the time. Now we are wanting to have a church wedding to celebrate with close family and friends. We are not expecting gifts nor to go on a honeymoon, we simply want to do this because we want the catholic church to recognize our marriage. The question is, would it be ok to have bridesmaids and groomsmen? nothing huge, just a small wedding party. We may do this for our 10year anniversary but another question. Would it be ok to choose a different date?, just because we dont want it to be too hot or too cold

A couple years later, and i'm just reading this, and feel 100x better. my SO and I are getting married 01/12/2018 and then having a ceremony in 2019 or 2020. (currently working on buying a house, and the wedding will be planned around that).

Thank you so much for this post!