Wedding in France or UK?

It does seem rather impolite to send guests home before all the fun starts! Like some sort of naughty child punishment!

Well as for my personal opinion, I find the whole marriage thing in France very unromantic where everyone has to get married in the same place. I have even been to a wedding where the poor bride had to line up outside the mairie to wait her turn as they were running late! As you can image she did not feel very special! Where I come from we are very lucky that we can organise a marriage celebrant to come to us for the day, be it in your garden, on a beach or on the top of a building. At least that way you can personalise your day to suit you and your future partner. I have heard that the paperwork is a bit of a nightmare in France, but what's new, so don't let that put you off. I guess where you get married just depends on where means the most to you both? You could always have two weddings. That is what I will have to do if the day arrives. Ah, the complications of inter racial marriages...

Open to discussion as just my opinion in a sea of others....

Thanks for all your advice. It's true that travelling for my family (which is much bigger) is an issue, so maybe the mairie here, followed by big party/blessings in England is a good plan. The civil marriage ceremony in France certainly doesn't seem very romantic, but then a registry office probably isn't either I suppose.

I'm so sorry to here about your miscarriage dmu and you're right to warn me about not overdoing it during pregnancy. Strangely that's the third miscarriage on or around wedding day account I've heard in as many weeks. I'm quite far on already, and so we aren't planning to marry before next summer, so the baby will be old enough to travel and can be passed to granny/aunty/friends for looking after while we prepare/make vows/have a good party!