My fiance and I are getting married in a Texas state park in November this year. We will have parents, grandparents, and siblings there only. 20 total including us. We plan to go to a nice restaurant afterwards for dinner/celebrations. We both come from very large families, so an event this size is very unusual. It was suggested to us to have a "reception" or celebration of marriage in the Spring of 2022 and that be the big event everyone would be invited to. However, it was becoming too big and too much like a wedding, minus the ceremony part. My fiance truly does not care to have the reception or any kind of larger celebration, he suggested I just have a big bridal shower instead. He is shy and laid back, so the less he has to be the center of attention, the better for him. Not to sound greedy, but we are also wondering if people would buy things on our registry even if we don't have a traditional wedding or some sort of reception/shower. We saw how much his twin and his now-wife received at their showers & wedding, and we could really use a lot of help getting our life started together. No matter what, reception or not, we plan to send out marriage announcements with a link to our wedding website so people can see pictures and read about our ceremony (which also has our registry on it).
I am so torn about what to do! Reception? Bridal shower? Neither? Registry or no?