Who gets invited to legal ceremony?

My FI's immediate family lives here, but my closest family member lives a 7 hour drive away, and the rest of my family are on the other side of the country.

 

We plan to do the legal thing before we go to the DR for the "big show" and I didn't really want it to be anything big or special. I don't want it to take away from the day in the fancy dress with everyone there.

 

Because FI's family is here, he wants them there for the legal cermony. I don't think his sister will be coming down to the Dominican b/c she can't afford it, but his parents will be there at the resort. None of my family will be there for the legal ceremony, only the symbolic one. I think my family would be a bit upset if his family was there and they couldn't be.

 

SO my question is... Who did you have at your legal ceremony?

my dad and stepmom who live in the same city as us will be there, my FI's parents are flying in from mexico city because they really wanted to be here, and then we have our officiant who is a friend who has a minister's license, and then one more friend who is catering the dinner afterwards at our home for free.

 

that's tough that your family lives so far away... have you talked to them about whether or not they can make it? their answer might surprise you if not!

I would love it if they could make it out, but I don't think they have the money to do so.

 

We plan to do it just a few days before we leave, and my parents (who live across the country) are very worried that they'll get stuck in a blizzard and won't be flying anywhere.

 

My stepdad also has a bad knee and can't ride on a plane for too long. That's why we chose the DR, b/c it's only a 4hr flight for him (6 hrs for us!). For them to fly here it'll cost them about $750 each and it's an 8 hour flight.

 

Canada is a LARGE country!

eek i didnt realize they were so far away by flight. well..... you cant deny your FI's family from coming if they live close by....

I agree with Maura - If FI's family is already there, then that is nice that they can be there to support you. But the big show will be the wedding where both your families will be there!!!!

What part of the east coast are you originally from?

 

I don't plan on having anyone other than the two witnesses and the JOP there with us.

We planned on keeping ours really low key and really weren't putting much thought into it. Just figured we would get it done a couple weeks before our Jamaica wedding... and drag along a couple of friend, my siblings or my parents (whoever was available).

 

Well Sean's parents just told us they want to come and are okay with flying down (they are from Canada, we are in MN) for it... even though it will be right over the holidays and right before the big trip. To be honest we hadn't really discussed inviting them, because we figured with the cost and timing they wouldn't want to.

 

So now we will be "inviting" both sets of parents and potentially some of my relatives that are unable to make the trip.

we had both sets of parents, my sister, his brother and his brother's gf. we really didn't want anyone there but figured that our immediate families would be really pissed if they werent there..i know that if my fam was there and his wasn't - or vice versa - we'd have a huge feud on our hands.

Our legal ceremony, which was at a beautiful little church, was a secret to everyone except us our 5 children and Everton's brother who couldn't make it to the DR. My oldest daughter was may moh, and E's brother was our best man.

 

Here's a picture of us at our legal ceremony just hours before we left for the DR.

We're both from Newfoundland, but FI's family moved to our town a few years ago.

Ever watch "Everybody loves Raymond"? My life was like that for a while, my FILs were just 3 blocks away and not so nice to me.

Thankfully they now live across town, but my parents are still in NF.

UPDATE: After talking to the travel agent yesterday, I'm seriously considering eloping as I don't think any of our family, here or there, can afford to come to the DR for the wedding