Congratulations first, your story sounds lovely. Me and my now hubby (2nd), decided to go off on our own abroad to get married. There were several 'family' problems going on which made us think we didn't want to invite this, that and the next one. But then there was the problem, if a doesn't get an invite b won't come and so on. Families eh? Then we realised when we were thinking of places to get married in this country, we were thinking things like 'will this place cost too much for x to attend, will the grandkids be happy here, will x like the food on offer' and so on. Somehow, it had gone from being about us, to making sure everyone and their brother was going to be happy first. We then decided no, this is going to be our day and we are going to be at the top of the list for once. So we went and booked a holiday with a wedding package included to Sri Lanka. It turned out to cost less than a 'traditional' type wedding. We had our wedding service videoed as part of the package, we had the most beautiful Buddhist ceremony and a fantastic holiday to boot. I did not feel I was in competition with anyone (one of my sisters always enjoyed upstaging me at every opportunity) and yes, it was totally selfish of us, but I felt, it was about us that day and I would do it all again exactly the same. So, remember, it's going to be your day, don't let anyone make you feel guilty if you want to do x, y or z. Do it your way and enjoy every minute of it.