Small ceremony big reception

My husband wanted to do a mini wedding at the state park we got engaged, but the space we wanted to use was like a tiny island that wouldn't fit more than 10-15 people so we would've had to severely limited who we could invite. Our friends and family expressed disagreement about this when we first talked about even getting engaged. They didn't want to miss the ceremony even though we were going to have a large reception with everyone. He ultimately ended up proposing to me there instead.

We’ve been to several large receptions for couples who chose to have courthouse weddings or small destination weddings. They’ve all been a lot of fun and nobody has had an issue.

I generally don’t like it. It makes me feel like I’m not good enough to be invited to the wedding. The only time I didn’t mind at all was when a friend got married with just a few witnesses in California and had a big reception here. They would’ve done it all here, but their marriage wasn’t legal here yet, so it didn’t feel like an intentional exclusion.