Destination Wedding....To Do A Reception At Home OR Not To Do A Reception At Home.....????

Were doing a destination wedding with a small "reception" there with finger food, fruit trays, a candy buffet, small cake and cupcakes and its byob.. when we get home 2 weeks later from our honeymoon.. were doing a huge reception with a big cake, a DJ, 150 guests are invited. I haven't even started planning that in detail yet. OMG, my head is spinning from the wedding alone

This is exactly why we finally chose not to do a destination wedding. Our extended family and many friends would not have been invited, so we wanted to do something at home as well. By the time all was said and done, looking at prices and whatnot, we decided to just skip the destination altogether. I absolutely understand the appeal, though, and at times I wish we were doing something MUCH much smaller.

I went to a reception where the bride and groom already eloped in Vegas. It was kinda low key with sheet cake and deli foods, but everyone had a good time.

It doesn't have to be a big affair. With a private ceremony elsehwere, a low key open house event at your home, or a parents home is appropriate. Finger foods, a cake and just a chance for people to celebrate and share in your happiness.

My cousin and his wife did. It was great. It was a way to include the family members that did not get to go to the actual wedding. I would encourage you to do it. As a family member that didn't get to go I loved it!

I was thinking of something less formal...like maybe a brunch or cookout type of thing w/out looking/being like a "shot-gun wedding" type affair. My fiance' thinks the whole idea of a reception back home is stupid b/c he says we wouldnt do anything like a first dance or feed eachother cake so it defeats the purpose of a reception. I was just considering our older family members who can't travel as well as the fact that gifts, money, gift cards could benefit u since we're relocating.

Thanks for the feedback!

Would it be possible for you to have wedding/housewarming get together. By saying housewarming a gift is practically suggested. An old boss had her wedding in Switzerland and came back to have a GREAT low after wedding party. It was great cause she put up a slideshow of the wedding. I'm planning to have a small Bridal Shower but my family is HUGE and my FH family lives in another country, hence the destination wedding..

We're having about 80 people next weekend for our at-home reception. We were married in Punta Cana in June. We did register, because we were tired of everyone asking us what to get us. 50 of the people coming are friends, 30 are family. We wanted it to be really low-key, but my brother got involved and got us a DJ, and then my mother got involved and got us a caterer! UGH. But whatever, we're not paying for most of it so we figure we might as well have fun. 15 of our friends and family came to our DW. I'm really excited to party it up with our friends and fam, though.

It is definitely worth the hassle! Most destination weddings will not have many guests willing to travel and I'm sure they would appreciate the opportunity to celebrate your marriage with you. You can keep as may traditional aspects of a reception as you like. There is no reason you can't share a special dance with your husband and feed each other cake and there will still be toasts to be made! You can make it as low key or as extravagant as you like. What concerns me is how gift-centric your question seems. Yes, most guests will bring a gift or card, but that is not a reason to host a reception.

We are hosting a post-celebration when we return. something informal w/dj in our newly remodeled club house.

i want to celebrate with all of our family who could not make it.

We are getting married in the Smoky Mountains. I have a steak restaurant reserved for 2 hours after our wedding. We will have a wedding cake and people will order their meals off the regular menu. We were going to have another reception about a month after our wedding here at home at a relatives house, but the relative has changed their mind and now we are looking to rent a small hall. For the reception at home we plan on having relatives cook some things- and here in Louisiana it's easy to cook a big pot of jambalaya or gumbo and have that with just a few other items and keep it simple.

Oh, we're still having a cake and doing a toast. No first dances/dances with parents, etc for us, though, bc it's just not our thing.

I'm getting married in San Francisco but live in TX. We are inviting people both from TX and CA, about 70 guests...but most TX people won't be able to come...SO, we are planning for a very informal cook-out/pot-luck for our TX people when we come back from our honeymoon. I will, however, wear my dress again!!!!!!

Sorry if the question seemed gift-centric...the idea of gifts it how I can motivate my fiance' to be interested in a reception at all. He's not all that concerned about having people there that won't be able to make it and feels like it's just a waste of money to pay for $25 a plate for people to come and eat and not leave a gift. He feels like he and I have ALWAYS given nice gifts when we go to any affair: babyshowers, bridal showers, weddings, receptions, bday parties, etc. and probably doesn't want to get upset if it's not reciprocated. Not to mention that the people who keep asking about us having a reception say that we'll want/need GIFTS since we're relocating and starting w/nothing at all.

We're having a reception in my parents' area in a couple of weeks--we had a small DW in Vegas in May, about 30 guests; this is a chance for some people who couldn't make that to celebrate with us, and for my mother to show us off a bit. We're doing a cocktail reception with hor d'oerves, cake, and wine (sparkling and non) and beer (cash bar for cocktails). I'll be wearing my wedding dress again since it's a red cocktail dress anyway.

At least one gift has been purchased off our registry since we sent out invites for this, so there will probably be some gifts; fortunately, we're driving down so we'll be able to easily transport them back. We got a lot of gifts from people who weren't able to attend the DW already, though, so I'm not expecting much.

We're looking at doing this, and doing a small bbq type event at our home 2 weeks later (after the honeymoon and stuff). We like to have people over, and it would definitely be a low key affair.

I'm not wearing my dress, but will probably get some sort of white sundress or something more casual and wear my wedding shoes. I can totally see myself walking around my house in my tiara... but that has nothing to do with the wedding.

We're not planning on guests bringing gifts- and will actually probably ask that they not to. We're not spending $25/pp- probably more like $5-10... It's the same as any party we do at the house... just for a special occassion and I'll have pictures about.

We are having a destination wedding in Aruba. We debated over the same thing!

We finally decided on this:

The wedding will be just us. No family or friends, just the two of us. There are many people that would really like to go, but we know that we would worry about our guests more than ourselves. Plus we would have to plan 2 parties.

When we get back we are going to have a very casusal, low-key reception with family and close friends (with cake, of course!) We are going to make sure that our guests know that we will not accept any gifts, since the weren't invited to the wedding.

We're having a BBQ open-house style party when we return. Nothing fancy, and making sure that people understand we do not want a gift. We'll have about 75 people here. We do have the house for it though, with a large house/yard/pool...If you live in an apartment, I would imagine it would be much harder.

For us, a DW was pointless, we would of dished out the cash for a DW wedding, not have a majority of friends and family, and then come home and spend just as much, probably more, on the reception.

Ok....so it seems that Destination Brides do the opposite of what I mentioned....INSIST THAT NO ONE BRINGS A GIFT as opposed to welcoming gifts if they want...interesting, but I understand where you're coming from. IDK....we'll prob just nix the idea altogether..I already have a headache about it and I haven't even done anything but give it a small thought. Not worth the headache....most of our CLOSE friends and fam will be there anyway....