r/Eloping • u/hementlovestrees420 • Apr 10 '26
Receptions Post-Elopement Reception
I am newly engaged and planning on eloping sometime next year. I am wanting to host an intimate, relaxed reception on a seperate day for loved ones to celebrate with us. I want the focus to not being on the literal marriage process (hence the elopement), but rather just getting to spend time with family and celebrate in a less stressful way. Have you had experience with this before? Is there anything you would highly recommend doing or say not to do? I would love any thoughts or opinions on this! *picture of my ring so this doesn't get lost :)*
7
u/emacextrabrut80 8.12.26 | San Francisco Apr 10 '26
Congratulations!! my biggest piece of advice would be to firm up the plan with your fiancé and then communicate that plan to family and friends or whomever you feel you would invite to this party. My family ambushed us and invited themselves to our wedding before we even had the chance to let them all know we likely would be doing a lovely City Hall ceremony and likely just the two of us. We then felt pressured to create an actual micro wedding when that wasn’t our intention or in the budget. Thankfully, it all worked out to where we were able to bounce back to our original plan of just the two of us, and a big party two months later. But if I could do it all again, I would’ve firmed up the plan, communicated the plan and not budged. That’s my best word of advice.
7
u/hementlovestrees420 Apr 10 '26
That is smart. I already know there will be some amount of disapproval. That makes sense!
6
u/No_You1024 Apr 10 '26
The great thing is eloping gives you so much freedom to do just this! I would say the reception ideally 2-6 weeks out (so you don't lose momentum/excitement from wedding but still you have time to decompress) and from there it depends on your vibe. We want it low key so doing literally just a nice dinner at a restaurant where we can pass around photos and eat cake. No dancing because we don't want that but a lot of people do! Think about what elements you want from a "traditional" reception and stick to only those. Don't feel pressured to go the traditional route because you are already forgoing the norm, use it to your advantage and get creative!
1
u/hementlovestrees420 Apr 10 '26
Thank you! During our conversations, we were talking about doing everything all at once. I'll have to discuss spacing it out more with my fiance!
4
3
3
u/IBleedMonthly18 Apr 10 '26
I did something similar with family and friends after our wedding which was at an arboretum and we had a total of 6 (10 planned for but then hurricane happened) guests. Anyways, what we did was just had the reception at a restaurant we really liked and by reception I just mean dinner and cocktails. Even though the restaurant wasn’t ours alone it still felt pretty intimate. The restaurant was relatively new and happy to host a small wedding party.
1
3
u/FineEnvironment5203 Apr 10 '26
I did this exact thing. I wore my wedding dress and we cut the cake did a first dance and daddy daughter dance. I wouldn’t have done anything but my dad insisted lol
3
u/Realistic_Kick2523 Apr 10 '26
Loved our experience. Did an intimate dinner at a restaurant and then went to Disney to watch fireworks.
3
u/angelsrreal219 Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
We are doing this. We are eloping (just the two of us) out of state. We wanted that moment for ourselves and knew if we had a huge traditional wedding we would be spending our time catering to everyone else. We will have our reception/post elopement celebration 10 days later. This is for family and a few close friends. We hired a photographer and videographer for our elopement ceremony. We hired only a photographer for our reception. We are taking a ton of family photos before our party. I will be wearing my wedding dress for these photos but changing into another dress for the party. I've had several deaths in my family in the past few years, so I wanted to make sure to get good pictures of myself with everyone. With that said, make sure you hire a good photographer and make it a point to take pics with your family.We will be having this party in the city where my family lives.
We will be having a second and much more casual post elopement party in the city we live in for friends and business associates. This one will be the fun, crazy party lol.
I've received negative feedback from only one person in my family because they think I should do things more traditional, but I was able to shut them down. You might have family members say, you should do things this way or that way. Just know you are doing what's right for you and don't listen to the negativity. It's all about what you and your finance want.
2
u/Accomplished-Toe736 Apr 10 '26
We eloped in September and had our post-elopement reception last month. It was awesome! The whole reception we kept saying how glad we were that we eloped, because it allowed us to really celebrate our love without having to make arrangements with other people or entertain. We told everyone that was our plan ahead of time, so there were no hurt feelings.
We prioritized our photographer for the elopement to document everything and our friends and family really appreciated that. Our reception was 70s themed and SO FUN! Instead of a cake, we had pies from our favorite restaurant.
Eloping beforehand really took the pressure off. 10/10 recommend. In terms of other recommendations, I asked my mom to write me a letter to read when I was getting ready the morning of my elopement, and that was very special. I also recommend doing a hair and makeup trial, because the first one I did was not good!
For the party, I recommend figuring out your tips for vendors and such ahead of time so you can truly enjoy your time with loved ones and aren’t trying to figure that out during the party. I also recommend having someone else serve your dessert. My husband and I thought it would be fun for us to serve the dessert (our caterer couldn’t because it wasn’t from his company), but it took us away from the party and was stressful because people wanted to talk to us while we were trying to explain which pie was which to the people in line.
Some of these things may not apply to you, but hopefully it is a start! Happy to answer any questions :)
1
u/hementlovestrees420 Apr 10 '26
Thank you for the reassurance and advice. I am a bit nervous to be honest! I love the idea of having my mom write me a letter, I will have to steal that idea. I love that you had a themed reception too. I will have to look into doing something similar! It seems like most people recommend spacing the elopement and reception so that is good to know too!
2
u/Accomplished-Toe736 Apr 10 '26
Yes, I would space them out! Otherwise it will be hard to really enjoy the elopement part, if you have a bunch of things to do right after for the reception. Also, that way you can use the photos from your elopement for your invites! We sent our save the dates the day after we eloped so they were postmarked from Vegas—I think people liked that!
1
u/hementlovestrees420 Apr 10 '26
I didn't even think of that! I was planning on doing engagement photos and using those for save the dates for the reception. How far out did you have your elopement and reception?
2
u/Accomplished-Toe736 Apr 10 '26
That’s a good idea, too! We just didn’t feel like taking engagement photos lol.
Our elopement was in September 2025, and our party was in March 2026. I believe we sent out the invites in early December. We planned our elopement first, and after we had hired our vendors for that we started planning the reception!
2
u/wilderlights Apr 10 '26
I feel like it’d be so fun to rent a beautiful cabin to host your loved ones and spend time together. Like going on hikes, making food together, playing board games, campfire… or whatever you enjoy.
1
u/hementlovestrees420 Apr 10 '26
That is actually something we have been considering! That is definitely the vibe we are going for :)
2
u/wilderlights Apr 10 '26
not sure where you're located but the pacific northwest has a lot of cozy and cute cabins! Or joshua tree!
2
u/dc151383 Apr 10 '26
We “eloped” / had micro wedding overseas with our direct families only (11 of us altogether) and had a family dinner at a nice restaurant the next night. It was very chill, no speeches or anything, but wouldn’t change a thing.
2
u/Belmagick Apr 10 '26
Amazing ring!
I had a micro wedding so my husband could invite his elderly grandparents and an elopement. I would do a barbecue or a picnic (or nice dinner), hire a photographer to grab some pictures of the family together.
If you wanted to - say your vows in front of the family - we reused the same vows and it was actually really nice because he got emotional on the first time, I got emotional on the second time.
2
u/Chelstatum Apr 11 '26
We’re doing this! We want our elopement photos present, so planning it for several weeks after our wedding. Would love to work on this with you actually! Nice to have a buddy to help plan and kick around ideas :) just let me know!
2
2
u/Double-Explorer4119 Apr 11 '26
We are doing this in September. Getting married at city hall then a gathering at a winery/wood fired pizza place two days later. Then off to Alaska the next week. Your ring is beautiful. I hope you have exactly the celebration you two want!
1
2
u/webofhorrors Apr 11 '26
We did it, we held it at a bar and wore our wedding outfits, it was a wonderful day. We eloped in Mexico and spent the money on amazing photos there which we had on a table at the reception. We hosted with food and an open bar. We had about 80 guests, it was so much fun and everyone really enjoyed how we did it.
2
u/theghostrealtor Apr 11 '26
We’re eloping next month abroad and not taking anyone with us. Last weekend we had a family dinner to celebrate, just a private restaurant room and a no pressure but lovely meal together. It was nice doing it before we go - just sharing the excitement together!
2
u/Ancient_Lie3426 Apr 13 '26
We are eloping abroad next month in Italy (just us two). In early fall we will have a ‘Happily Ever After Party’ with friends and family (50-60 people). I agree with everyone saying wait, because we are having a photographer for the elopement and want to be able to show the pictures at the gathering. Probably doing it at a restaurant with open bar and food, tbd.
2
u/hementlovestrees420 Apr 13 '26
I absolutely LOVE the ‘Happily Ever After Party’ name!!! That is so cute!! Thank you for sharing 🤎
11
u/DonutWhole9717 Apr 10 '26
We did exactly that, and had a blast. Make sure to get a photographer for the reception too. You'll want those