Not having a reception due to lack of guests to invite

[Fraidofabow]

We’re planning a very small basic wedding in a registry office. No flowers or photographers. Just us, our baby and our parents. It’s all we can afford.
Im happy and excited we’ll be married of course, but deep down I’m disappointed that it ends there. We won’t be having a reception as neither of us have any one to invite. I lost my friends when I got pregnant. The only people we’d have to invite is elderly relatives so it wouldn’t be fun. No dancing, no drinking, no one to be happy for us and give speeches and a toast, no wedding cake, no first dance.
I know the marriage is the most important thing and it will be a lovely ceremony, but I always dreamed of my wedding day being a full jam packed day with a meal and party afterwards. Then a lovely honeymoon to finish it off. We won’t be having any of it. I had to wait 9 years for it and I worry it’ll be underwhelming.
Did anyone else have this arrangement and did it go better than you expected? Did you find it hard going home after without all the ‘extras’ many people have after their ceremony?
We would have had a party if we had friends, so it’s embarrassing that we can’t for that reason. It just makes me feel a bit sad, whilst none of that ott big white wedding showy off is my thing anyway I feel a bit down I won’t experience it.
Can anyone relate?

There were 6 guests at our registry office wedding. No photographs, flowers or reception and no honeymoon. We are still married 56 years later. So tell me, what is important about a wedding - how you celebrate it or who you marry?

At the risk of sounding pedantic OP you can't even afford flowers and photographers. Even if you had loads of friends for a party, how were you expecting to feed and water them?

It really doesn't 'end' here, there's nothing stopping you having a bigger party with new friends in the future.

Not quite the same as you, but I'd planned a midday ceremony with a night out on the town. Because we'd all woken up so early to do our wedding makeup , we were shattered by 10 p.m. 😂 if I had my way the entire thing would've been in a bar but the relatives wouldn't have liked that!

Big blowout for my 30th already planned!

Life is long and meandering. It's never your only chance to do something. So don't worry, don't feel embarrassed, you will get you wish one day :)

This. It’s an important thing to work on, regardless of what you choose to do for your wedding, OP. It’s hard to know from your post whether you genuinely want friends or just want them to enable you to have the type of wedding you would prefer.

We have loads of friends and huge families, but scattered all over the world, so it would have been an expensive, time-consuming extravaganza neither of us had the time or patience for, so we just got married in jeans with two witnesses and went for a fancy lunch afterwards.

That’s also a good point.

build bridges with your friends with a wedding invitation?

have the reception at home, someone's home