Sharing Our Wedding Invitation with Family

It was not an easy decision deciding to have a very small destination wedding and cutting most family out of our invite list. In fact, it was one of the hardest things about wedding planning. I guess, no matter what you have to make sacrifices somewhere. That was our big sacrifice.

Even though we decide to only invite our parents, my grandparents and Drew’s brother as our only family to the wedding, I knew it was still important to me to share as much of the wedding with all of my family, as I could. I still wanted them to feel as though they were a part of our big event. I’ve made sure to invite them to all of the wedding related events we are having at home, to send them the link to our wedding website and to share a copy of our wedding invitation with them.

Pretty early on, my grandparents let me know that they would not be attending the wedding. I get it, they are both in their 80s, don’t like to travel as much these days and they think that Hawaii is too hot. I get all of it. Doesn’t mean I wasn’t any less crushed when they told me they wouldn’t be coming. I really wanted them there.


Since they weren’t going to be attending the wedding, I wanted to make sure I still sent them a save the date and wedding invitation. I wanted them to be able to see what we were sending to everyone else, to be included and to have them as mementos. I wanted them to know how much I wanted them to be a part of our special day, no matter where it was.

My Gramma turned 80 in November. We took the 3 hour drive with my mom and daughter, Amanda, to my Aunt’s house in Bothell, WA on a Sunday to celebrate my Gramma’s big day. (Yes, Drew and I did both have to work early the next day.) As a gift for my Gramma, we brought with us one of our engagement pictures framed and our wedding invitation.

Our Maid of Honor, Nicki and I had just finished making the wedding invitations the day before. We hadn’t mailed them out to any of our wedding guests and no one had seen them, yet. I wanted my family to know how much they meant to me by sharing the invitation with them first.

When my Gramma was opening presents I gave her the invitation, letting her know that I knew her and Grampa weren’t coming to the wedding, but we wanted them to still have an invitation. After she opened it up, she passed it around for all of my family to see. Many of them said it was the best invitation that they had even seen. Yes, this statement even came from some of the men. Every single one of them looked at it. Not just them, but also the few significant others who are not married into the family. Every. Single. One.

Our wedding invitation
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They were blown away that Nicki and I had made the invitations ourselves. They couldn’t believe the work on them. My cousin, who was recently married, couldn’t believe how many pieces we had printed. (All hail the VistaPrint Groupon for helping us with that one!) I was so happy how much everyone loved them. Not to mention, how proud of both Nicki and I was over them. But, even better, I was so happy we still got to share them with my family and to see their reactions to them.

The best part, really, was all of them asking when we’d be having our Portland wedding celebration and all declaring that they would be there! I can’t wait to celebrate with my family back home. Maybe, I'll eveb be able to get my grandparents out on the dance floor! 

Have you had to make any sacrifices along the way in regards to your wedding? Did you family support you in those sacrifices?