A micro wedding abroad?

[maggiethemagpie]

I have recently got engaged to DP, been together five years, two kids.....I'm not sure I want or need the cost of a traditional wedding, it seems that to do it properly you won't get any change out of £10k and we don't have a lot of money, especially with two kids in nursery at the mo!

I've been thinking that I'd rather spend that sort of money on a honeymoon of a lifetime type thing, both DP and I would love to go to America, so now I've been thinking why not sod the trad wedding and go to florida. It would be just us, the kids and our parents (9 in total as dad remarried) the plan would be spend a week there with everyone, during which we'd get married, then send the kids home with the grandparents and have a week to holiday in America just the two of us. If siblings/other family wanted to join us in florida for the wedding they'd be welcome to but we certainly wouldn't expect it.

Then we could always have a celebration meal back in UK for everyone who wouldn't come - although they may feel a bit short changed as it wouldn't be for our actual wedding as such, just a bit of an after-event.

Has anyone done this and how did it go? Did you have lots of upset siblings/aunties/cousins/ or did people accept it graciously?

I just can't justify spending £!0-£15k on one day in the uk but could on a 2 week holiday in the states. I know I could married for less than that in uk but don't want to go too 'bargain basement' below a certain price it seems not worth doing.

[kavv0809]

We decided to marry abroad for similar reasons (less expensive / more bang for buck etc) and it was fab.

Found it narrowed the guests down on the whole to those who were closest to us and really wanted to be there. There were a couple of exceptions obviously, and also this was pre kids, but on the whole it was absolutely perfect and wouldn't have changed a thing.

We had an evening type do when we came back and everyone treated it as a wedding. We did explain what we had done re going abroad in the invites, otherwise I believe some guests would definitely have been cross if they thought they'd missed out on a day time invite.

Good luck whatever you decide, it sounds like a lovely wedding to me.