We need to have a legal ceremony early and FH and I are struggling to make the decision on which date to have it.
Our non-legal ceremony (and whole wedding shabang) is in July down in Cornwall, and we're having the legal one in our home town local registry office in Kent. We've looked into it, and it's not an option to have the legal one like the day before in Cornwall so Kent it is!
Currently we have two options of ceremony type - mini ceremony, with entry and exit music, and a choice of vows (10 guests) or very basic legal wording only ceremony, no entry or exit (4-10 guests depending on room). There's about £150 price difference.
Would appreciate any thoughts on our options, any ways of thinking about it or pros and cons I've not thought of!
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The mini ceremony has availability on two sentimental dates:
March date
Pros: Available date is my late grandma's birthday, and I cannot stress how important she still is to my family, she's a constant presence, my e-ring was inspired by her bracelet, the way FH proposed was inspired by a promise she made me make when I was younger, she always dreamed about me getting married etc so it feels like a way to include her I guess. FH also thinks the fact that it's early would co-incide with a good timeline for our parents to meet, and if we go for lunch after as like a pre-wedding get together / legal marriage celebration it could be a nice day out.
Cons: It's quite far in advance of the actual wedding (not sure if that's a con or not but it's a fact and one that people have raised!)
June date
Pros: Available date is our current dating anniversary, so could be a nice way to 'end' that anniversary before our wedding date becomes our forever anniversary. It's closer to the actual wedding date (about 3 weeks) so it might be nice to be in a bit of a wedding bubble.
Cons: It's a couple of days before FH's 30th birthday, and his family are the ones that would have to travel a couple of hours to get to us, I can see his mum kicking up a stink about traveling for both, and then for having to travel again a few weeks later down to Cornwall. On this date I'd be also 30 and FH would be still just be 29 and I can see his grandad making 'cougar' or 'older woman' jokes which would really bother me (petty I know but it would!), whereas in March we'd both be 29 (and July we'd both be 30).
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The legal only ceremony option has zero availability on any dates that feel sentimental to us, so it would be a random date (that's one con), another con is that I did like the idea of my mum walking me in down the 'aisle' for the legal one so she gets to do that too and she wouldn't be able to with this version as there's no entry or exit it's like an appointment with an audience. Pros are we could have it like a week before the wedding (maximum wedding bubble) and it's cheaper.
