DD and SIL married in City Hall with only their widowed mothers as witnesses.
There were celebrations in their honor when they visited their respective home towns. I hosted a casual catered backyard event on a Saturday afternoon. I did have a photo booth with props for some fun memories.
@austinmshauri re date change - both S and FDIL are paramedics who work on shift, including every other weekend - which means there are only 3 other week-ends we can consider for Sept/Oct, none of which will work for a variety of reasons. They don’t want a summer or November wedding. So we’ll just have a fun party here and it will work out.
Also, in our neck of the woods beef ‘n beer is an event, not a specific dish (although it always involves hot roast beef sandwiches.) Beef ‘n beers are popular here for fundraising events, because they are a fun but low cost party option. If you are invited to a b&b, you know dress is casual, you will be well fed but the food won’t be fussy, and the beer (and wine) will be flowing. Often there is music and dancing as well. I didn’t realize this was a regional thing!
Photo booth is a good idea!
Never, ever heard of a beef and beer! 
Also the officiant’s fee, invitations, and hair and makeup if the bride and bridesmaids don’t do their own. And tips. There are a lot of people you end up tipping.
Good friends were married far away in a small ceremony and had a sort of second reception – they saved many of the tablecloths, centerpieces, etc and put the wedding invitations, etc out for people to see. They had a traditional guestbook and we were encouraged to sign it where a new date had been entered for this 2nd event. She wore her wedding dress, and one of the bridesmaids was there and she wore her dress too. They had a small cake made that was similar to, but not identical to, the first one. And they ran a slide show of the wedding itself (not a video, just photographs). It was festive and special and simple
Other wedding costs? Invitations and postage (invites, shower, save the date, thank yous!)
I made a first attempt at MOG dress shopping yesterday and it was disastrous. First I went to Dillard’s; I had seen several dresses online there. But I need a petite size and they only had a couple petite dresses, and they were short dresses. I want full-length. I googled “bridal stores near me” and there was a David’s nearby. Before I drove there, I called to ask if they had petite full-length MOB/MOG dresses. They said yes. I saw exactly one dress, and I didn’t like it.
For those of you who are short, could you try anything on in a store? Or will I just need to order items online to try? I tend to be hard to fit, so usually have to try on a lot of styles and sizes.
@college_query - Macy’s, Nordstrom, and von Mayr has petites. Good luck! Actually the Dillard’s here did too.
I’m a petite. I could not find one thing to try on in a store. I don’t live in a great shopping area but even went to a Nordstrom out of town and nada
@college_query - Finding petite sizes was hit or miss. I found some at Nordstrom and L&T, but not many (and they usually didn’t suit me). I ordered alot of dresses online, but only from places that either had free return shipping or brick & mortar stores where I could bring returns.
I ordered a dozen dresses online, from stores nearby to make returns easier. Even my g/f ordered for me. No, I’m not taking a dress up by the waist.
I ended up having a dress made
My D ran into that problem when she looked for a dress for a wedding where she was holding a chuppah pole. She needed long or tea length in preferably a petite. She didn’t find much as many brands don’t seem to make petites and stores don’t seem to carry them. She ordered a lot from Nordstrom and returned most of them. She eventually made an appointment with a Nordstrom store that wasn’t a regular store. I’m not sure what it’s called but she made an appointment with a stylist and let her know what she was looking for, her size and also what she had already tried. When she arrived they had a dressing room curated for her. She ended up finding a dress that way. They had alterations on site but as m D lived two hours away she took the dress home and had it altered at our local store.
@college_query I didn’t need petite sizes but even just looking for average sizes was hard! I was surprised at how many times I tried things on at stores without finding anything I liked for MOB dress. There were just not enough choices in the stores. I ended up ordering things online and returning them in big batches, which is vey much unlike my usual habits. Finally got a great dress that was on sale at Saks. I haven’t shopped in person at Saks in decades but they had lots of dresses online.
Look at the return policies. Some places have postage free returns always, some if you sign up for a loyalty program, some for special deals.
I’m petite height also. Lucky for me, lord and Taylor in NYC was still open. I was able to try on dresses, plus use their alterations department as well.
I’m not big into online shopping. A friend encouraged me to come to NYC.
Macy’s there also had a decent petite selection
I ordered and returned dozens of dresses. Easiest way to try on without trekking all over. I did try on many at the brick/mortar stores. Macy’s had great selections. Don’t forget Amazon—they have many you can find at other stores in case you see something you might want to try on. However, I am not petite.
The Nord stylist idea is good. You talk to them, maybe send some pictures of styles you like, and they can bring in stock from other locations. That is, if you have a good Nordstrom near you. Not all were created equal.
Thanks - I am in the metro area of pretty large city. There is a Nordstrom about 45 minutes away, on the opposite side of the city. I also just looked at Amazon, and some of the same dresses are available there on Amazon Prime Wardrobe.
I do have a dress I purchased at the Lord & Taylor in NYC a few years ago that I could wear, with some alterations. It’s sleeveless, and I could check to see if a dressmaker could add sleeves using the wrap that came with the dress. I am not comfortable with bare arms, especially for late December.
I bought my dress in London. I had seen the site online and was going for the Yankees Red Sox game. had a lot of angst but I like it now. I have not had luck with ordering on line. I usually return. I don’t tend to wear tighter dresses but this one is . The looser ones made me look heavier. My dress is not long but below the knee. It is quite fancy though. wedding is next weekend.
D1 has been planning the wedding but has now officially announced. It is in May. maybe I will wear the same dress.
The shop I ordered from has catalogs in most major cities. My luck is that the main headquarters is nearby. My office manager is a 2x. We saw a lovely design, and she had it made it Italian gold. Mine was not a in the pattern book, and the best thing about it was the royal blue silk and lace. They threw in Swarovski crystals on front lace, also in blue. I’d return to this store again and again.
FYI - I am a petite size. When I buy a regular size dress, to make it fit me, the dress is taken up (lifted ) on the shoulders, not from the waist. It is actually a fairly easy alteration. The dress I bought for D1’s dress was a regular size and the dressmaker just pinched an inch on the shoulders.