Statutory Office Wedding

MY fiancé and I have just booked our wedding at the registry office! SO EXCITED! We are having an incredibly busy spring and summer, and since we want to have a huge wedding/love party in a year or so once my family and friends from the states can fly over or once we can properly fly over there (and once I can afford that beautiful dress I've wanted since childhood), we decided that it would be best to do the ceremony now at the registry office. My best friend is flying from the states to be a witness. I have two silly questions:

1. Do people plan the wedding after parties/ dinners on the day of the marriage if it's at the registry office? Or on a weekend? There are very odd hours that are only allowed for weddings to occur at the offices. We want to plan a really nice dinner for a few of our close friends to celebrate since they all can't be witnesses to the actual ceremony.

2. Since we can only have two witnesses, is that bad for when we apply for our spousal visa? We can't afford a huge ceremony- the fees are ridiculous and we are currently trying to renovate our house that we just bought.

Thank you for your advice and sharing your experiences! I'm so excited and we have a lot of planning to do but we are one step closer to our dreams coming true of continuing our lives together <3

Do whatever you want regarding a party.  We didn't have one at all (there was the plan to have a blessing but somehow those things never seem to happen!).  If you want to have a party that night - do.  If you want to do it on a weekend - do.  There is no right or wrong.

UKVI is not going to give any consideration to what type of wedding you had or how many people there were.  They just care that you have the marriage certificate.

congrats cjga! your story is not so different from mine, so here's some reassurance:

1) we got married at the registry office in oxford. the cheapest room allowed only 2 witnesses, the next was for like, 45. we ended up paying for the bigger room (which was hilariously empty) because at the very least, my partner wanted his parents+brother there. it worked out that my aunt and uncle were there too (5 attendees total)

2) the formal witnesses sign the marriage certificate, and that's just 2 people. (in our case, it was partner's mom+my aunt)

3) do what you like afterwards! my partner is big into baking, so had made a couple of tarts ahead of time, and we all went back to our flat for tarts and prosecco (provided by the relatives). we went out to a nice dinner that night (his parents paid). i got my visa 3 days later, in person.

4) a few months later we had a wedding ceremony which was much more real to us, and a reception, with about 75 guests. what was great about this is that we could have a friend act as celebrant (which is much harder to do in the UK than USA!) and choose our own ceremony, rather than the rigid requirements by the UK state. We kept things pretty simple -- the ceremony was at 2, we only did afternoon tea for the reception, everyone out at 6. and then did a pub crawl with all the young attendees that night, starting at 9. It was absolutely the right decision for us to divide things up -- it took a lot of pressure off, not having to worry about the visa, and no one seemed to mind the legal bits had been done already.

So good luck with your plans! It'll be fine, and happy, no matter what you choose to do!