Legally Married Before the Wedding

You could call it a celebration of marriage! I would be honest with your guests about your plans, but otherwise, you could word it as a wedding reception, celebration of marriage, a sequel wedding, etc.

View Quoted Comment Does it even matter to the guests? As long as our immediate/important family knows, do we have to tell them?

View Quoted Comment I think it depends on the guest, but I think honesty is always the best policy. Some guests may feel hurt if they find out later that you were already married before your Saturday ceremony and reception, especially if some people knew, but others didn't. Others may not mind. If you make your plans known ahead of time, it'll minimize the chances of guests feeling left out of the loop.

Most people here would tell you it’s vow renewal, I think you can call it what you want. You do want your guests to know it isn’t your official wedding as it does seem many people are very sensitive to that and feel they’re being lied to if not. I didn’t realize how strongly so many people feel about it but it’s worth keeping in mind.

View Quoted Comment With the amount of weddings I’ve been to I don’t think I’ve ever cared if it was official at the time. Seeing as now it’s an option for me now, it’s something to look into.

View Quoted Comment I totally get where you’re coming from - I considered doing the same! I personally don’t care I just know a lot of people do care a lot - way more than I realized. Good luck!!

View Quoted Comment Thank you for your advice! It will be taken into great consideration.

To put it in perspective: If your birthday was on a Monday but you wanted to celebrate on a Saturday, would people care? Probably not, but they usually still want to acknowledge or at least know when your actual birthday is.

View Quoted Comment I like your analogy! Thank you so much for that!

View Quoted Comment I appreciate your advice. Thank you

That is basically what people do for destination weddings, since it's tricky to get legally married abroad. I don't see the big deal

View Quoted Comment I don’t see the big deal either, but some previous comments did make a few good points.

My husband and are doing the same. We got married 10/6/20 and our wedding reception is 10/02/21. Everyone already know that we're married though because we did post pictures from our minimony. Nonetheless, everyone is excited for our event this year!

View Quoted Comment Congratulations! How did you address it in your invitation? Did you say vow renewal?

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I love this idea!!

View Quoted Comment Thank you! It was definitely a tough decision to push our date back a year but it’s what was best for us. Doing it this way just makes our lives a little bit easier.

It’s only a few days, I wouldn’t go to the effort of explaining it to everyone.
I know some people here call it deceptive, but I don’t see the big deal. I’ve moved every couple of years for the past 30 years and this happens a lot, esp with expats.

View Quoted Comment Thank you! & no our invitations say something along the lines of "Please join us in a celebration of our marriage"

View Quoted Comment I like that😁

View Quoted Comment See that’s what I thought. It’s only a few days. Thank you!