Why I Did Invite Family and Friends to My Wedding

There’s an article doing the rounds on Social Media at the moment. It is titled “Why I Didn’t Invite Family Or Friends To My Wedding”. And that’s great.

But here’s why I did invite family and friends (and lots of them, we come from big families) to my our wedding.

After four years of dating, despite being 21, we decided to get married. Aided by an unexpected proposal on a remote Cook Island beach.

We began talking about what kind of wedding we wanted. Well actually, I was just impatient to marry my love and get on with our married lives. We had been living in separate countries, attempting to live chastely for each other, and impatient covered much of that. When you know, you know.

From witnessing other strong marriages in our lives and through our knowledge of the commitment and life long nature of marriage, we knew that what we were undertaking was serious. It wasn’t to be taken lightly.

And so, we knew that we both wanted and had to invite everyone around us. People who had known us and shared with us our whole lives couldn’t be missed out.

Because though marriage is a bond between two people, it also is the creation of a family – both as one unit, but also as the coming together of two separate families. In Laws.

That marriage also relies on the support of the community around it. The strength of good family and friends who will give advice, share in joys and tears, tell you to pick yourself up and go back to the marriage in hard times, support in the raising of children and its inevitable ups and downs. And so much more. We need them. They need us. Our loved ones have as much right to celebrate in our joy (and their own joy in sharing in our lives), as we do to celebrate it in the first place (how’s that for a sentence?).

Though a wedding perhaps was more stressful with many people and much to organise, it also wasn’t the marriage. It was a once off memorable event that launched us into the biggest mission of our lives – our vocation of marriage.

We were celebrating ourselves, our connection and our future together – and that required loved ones to share in it.

It included fabulous memories of getting ready with my family and closest friends, nervously awaiting what was to come. Followed by a beautiful, hot and windy ceremony in a church where generations of both of our families have held events, both happy and sad, so filled with memories. We laughed through photographs. We talked to so many family and friends. We gave and listened to speeches and joked about drunk uncles and what was going on at the bar. Many of these stories are still relived frequently today.

And after it all, we had the relief of peace and quiet and no more wedding planning, a honeymoon and ‘married bliss’. In total, still remaining, the best week of my life.

We knew we had any weekend of our lives for a weekend or ceremony just the two of us. Sure, that takes a bit of effort and planning now that we have children, but what doesn’t?

It was the marriage that counted. The strength and love that I held and still hold for the man I married.

And that is why we invited as many people as we could fit into that hall to our wedding.

Chelsea Houghton

Chelsea Houghton

Chelsea Houghton is editor of Restless Press, as well as a columnist for Catholic Stand, Ignitum Today and NZ Catholic. a 27 year old mother who lives in Christchurch, New Zealand with her husband and four children under the age of five. She has a Media and Communications degree from the University of Canterbury and in the past has worked for the Journey of the Cross and Icon for World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, for the Christchurch Catholic Youth Team and running the Theology of the Body for Teens programme and training to various groups.

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4 thoughts on “Why I Did Invite Family and Friends to My Wedding”

  1. Pingback: How The Pill Affects Your Dating Choices - BigPulpit.com

  2. Chelsea! I loved reading your article about your views on marriage. It is so rare to see people who value marriage nowadays. Having a strong marriage is so important! I love that you believe in chastity as well. That is also really rare. I really believe that we need more strong marriages centered on Christ in this world!
    I have seen families be blessed for following this important law from God. Marriage is not just about this life. I have a firm belief that families can be together not just for this time, but for eternity as well. If we look at it that way, we can find more strength and a stronger desire choose right. Even if it takes a longer time to get what we want, we know that God’s timing is better. When we give into sin, we are happy for a temporary time. Following God’s laws allows us to be happy for a permament amount of time.

  3. Here is how i got back my marriage through the help of a Great Spell caster Dr.ERO who brought back my wife to my kids…Just thought I should share my experience cause I strongly believe someone out there need’s it… You can email him via eromosalspiritualtemple@gmail.com Don’t give up just yet, the different between ‘Ordinary’ & ‘Extra-Ordinary’ is the ‘Extra’ so make extra effort to save your marriage/relationship if it’s truly worth it. website http://eromosalspiritualtemple.webs.com or call him with +2348161850195….

  4. It is in our culture to invite family and friends to a wedding. But the main reason I did invite them is to share our the moment of happiness to our loved ones. We invite them to witness the union of our hearts and spread the love that we both share.

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