Tips for a VERY small wedding (but not elopement)?

Question

We’ve been engaged for 2.5 years. Covid cancelled our wedding last year, and we now have a baby together as well as are working on buying a house. Now that we’ve had the baby and Covid restrictions are going away we want to finally have the wedding, but honestly I don’t want a big wedding anymore (never really did - small and elegant has been more my style all along). He’s been very against eloping, and so originally we planned to have a wedding of 75-100 people. Now that we’re where we are in life, that’s expensive and just feels unnecessary. 
So now we’re thinking to have an extremely small wedding with maybe 20-30 people consisting of immediate family and close friends for an intimate ceremony and drinks, maybe dinner. 
The thing is, how do I go about hand selecting our small guest list without offending people who don’t make the cut? Mainly I think it’s my family who’s going to be offended. We both have large extended families though, and it’s not an option to invite everyone. While we aren’t eloping, it really is just a small step above it.

Answer

I had a 30 person wedding last summer in the midst of covid. Only immediate family, grandparents, and bridal party was invited. We had a picnic reception at a local park since our reception venue was still closed. Only cost $200 to reserve the park Pavillion, and $300 for the burgers/chips/fruit/cake/wine. So much cheaper than our original plan, and it was honestly perfect 🥰

Answer

I had 13 guests including my husband and myself. We only included immediate family and my siblings  spouses.

Answer

I had 80 people at my wedding and we spent about  $2000, including  my dress, catering, and photography.  
I got my dress from David's Bridal and it was $100.  I guess it was from the previous season?   They all look like wedding dresses to me.  🤷‍♀️
We used my parents' nice backyard for our ceremony.  We borrowed chairs from the fire department my dad volunteers with.   We borrowed a wooden arch and draped it in white tulle, and along the rows of chairs we had garden stakes to hang little Mason jars with baby's breath.   
Then we had our reception at the fire  department; free tables, chairs, AND table covers.   We made centerpieces with baby's breath, candles, etc.   We also printed out little fun facts about us, both individually and as a couple, which we printed and put in frames that we used after in our home, to keep our guests entertained while we took pictures.  
We had it catered from a local caterer.   We had fruits and veggies as appetizers, pulled pork, A MASHED POTATO BAR, and some other things.   She also cut and served our cake, which was a sheet cake she kept in the back, because we had a small, formal wedding cake gifted to us by a friend.   The catering was our biggest expense, at $700.

Answer

we only invited our siblings, parents, grandparents, and my husband invited his best friend to be his best man (and ofc their spouses but no children). all together it was about 30-40 people. we also got married on valentine’s day so it was kinda inconvenient for a lot of people which helped when deciding who should come. what also helped is we aired it live on a stream so the people that wanted to be there but weren’t invited could watch from home.

Answer

So we did a destination wedding (20 people) mainly friends and very immediate family. But when we came back we had a small ceremony so my grandparents who are in their 90s could attend. We just kept it super small, our very closest friends and family. Honestly didn't have any issues with offending people, and I think even more so now with covid people will understand if they aren't invited. We just picked the friends we honestly see/talk to the most 🤷🏼‍♀️

Tips for a VERY small wedding (but not elopement)?

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