Courthouse & dinner instead of wedding ceremony?

I think that sounds beautiful! I would just do the dinner after and maybe go for drinks after. Where do you live? I could help you look! Currently rained in on vacation so i have time!

Just make sure you pay for all drinks/meals at dinnner.

You are having an actual wedding if you're getting married. I am also having a courthouse wedding and we are having a dinner afterwards, to say thank you for being there with us. I guess it would depend on your group, but personally, I think having an "activity" afterwards would feel prom-like, unless you're talking about a bar crawl.....

That is a an actual wedding ceremony. It's basically what we're doing. We don't have courthouses that marry, so we're getting married at city hall then going to a restaurant for dinner. No other shenanigans. Just lots of food and beverages. We're having 10-15 people.

I would skip the activity, it's not needed. A nice leisurely dinner and drinks is wonderful.

You are having an actual wedding, but we aware that most courthouses, if they even do weddings, do them on some random day after traffic court.

Book a little restaurant room. Get an officiant. Skip the activity. Drinks, great food, music.

If you need refs in NJ for venues, let me know.

I think this sounds like a great idea. But I agree with the others, skip the activity and have dinner and drinks instead.

I think she just meant without all the frivouolous shit. Obviously its a real wedding OP.

Sounds great!!

TBH a wedding exactly like this was one of the best ones I have ever been to! A BM of mine did this in November and we had an amazing day and she was so very happy!

Corn hole, play the shoe game with your husband(just google it) haha. Uhm dinnder and maybe a small dance floor

What Celia said.

I've officiated several weddings in restaurants -- in fact have one coming up soon on the day and at the time the couple wants (rather than a courthouse schedule).

One of my BMs did this in November. It was beautiful. They had it at the Santa Ana court house (which only does weddings), and then we all went out to lunch. The day was the most important thing to them (it was their 10 year anniversary and a Weds before Thanksgiving to boot!). Their officiant was a judge and the room was even decorated for a wedding.

If that is what YOU want, do it!!

I am doing something like that for 50 people , I found a chapel where will be the ceremony and a fine restaurant for our reception, since is Sunday will be just dinner no DJ .

I think it's a great idea!

It is an actual wedding if you are getting married. No one im inviting wants to do things but it might be cool to rent out a painting studio and do painting, or some science centers and museums will let you get group tours.

You don't need fun activities. People will probably just enjoy going to dinner. Don't stress too much!

That sounds wonderful!! I am so jealous. I wanted to do exactly that. Invite only immediate family and grandparents and then go out for dinner and drinks after.

I agree that you don't need additional activities. My husband and I did this. We hired an officiant, who had a photographer colleague. They worked together and offered discounts on services if we hired both of them. Our officiant advised that in the county where we got married, we could do the ceremony anywhere because there were less than ten guests. Which was great, because there were no appointments available for awhile at the busy courthouse in that county.

So, we chose to get married at the beautiful public library, after our photographer recommended it. Sidebar: she and the officiant were brilliant and wonderful, and we could not have pulled this off without them, so hire one or two great pros! We had about 1.5 hours of photography during and after the ceremony.

Then, we had rented a private room at a local restaurant, and headed over there for dinner. SIL got a cake from H's favorite bakery. The drinks flowed, the food was delicious, and the laughter was abundant. We started dinner around eight, I think? Midnight came before we knew it. No activities/games necessary. Our family members gave toasts. We just soaked in the love and had a hell of a day. If this kind of wedding is tempting to you, I say go for it!

ETA: to @Nancy's point--I think if you hire a pro officiant and have him or her meet you in the ceremony location of your choice, you can design your ceremony a little more, versus going to a courthouse. I've never gone to a true courthouse ceremony, so I don't really know how much opportunity you have to personalize, but I'm guessing not as much as you would with an independent professional officiant (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). Our officiant was able to send us a draft ceremony ahead of time, so that we could add in our favorite readings, vows, etc. It was truly beautiful. I couldn't have been happier.

Sorry for writing a novel!

I don't know how you and FH feel about wine, but if you live near a few vineyards (or a brewery), you could go wine tasting with your family/friends on a chartered bus after the courthouse ceremony. Many of them serve dinner so you could end the night at one of these with dinner. You would also need to pay for the tastings. You would just want to stagger everything so people weren't too trashed...I also like the idea of a safari supper (you go to three different restaurants for three different courses, you could also do this at someone's house). Again this would require a chartered van or bus.

I do agree that dinner is probably enough, but if you want an activity, those are my ideas.