In Estonia a small wedding is only the closest family and maybe few friends, if any. So maybe 0-20 guests. Medium is around 50 guests and a big wedding is 100+ guests.
Sometimes the couple is only registrating alone and won’t do wedding party at all. But mostly we have noon/afternoon registration and then a wedding party after that: lots of food and drinks and lasts until morning hours. Some weddings last for 2 nights (3 days).
Location is mostly countryside, by the sea or in a manor.
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I’d say fairly similar here in Sicily.
The ‘large’ wedding is certainly the most common.. many will have at least 100 if not several hundred guests.
Personally I went for the (very) small! That was what we both wanted.
Location here is also similar…a villa or agriturismo in the countryside,or else a place next to the sea.
The reception part tends to be heavily based on food (rather than alcohol or music,as is sometimes the case in other countries)…4-8 hours of solid eating,a lot of courses,finishing around midnight or so is quite common.
I can only speak about my experiences (in Bavaria, by the way), but all the (6? ) weddings I was at were similar.
First off there is the civil wedding. This is mostly a rather small thing. You marry and then go to some restaurant or something. Only the family and maybe a few close friends are invited.
Then there is the church wedding (and in my experience so far most people here get one, even if they are only Catholic on paper, for the tradition). This can happen way later, the next year for example. Note that I live in Catholic rural Bavaria, could be different elsewhere
These are way bigger, 100 people or more. It starts at the late morning or noon at the church, then all go to another location. Usually it lasts till the morning, too. A tradition I saw every time was the “Brautstehlen”. One guy “steals” the wife and runs off to party at another Inn, with a large part of the guests. The groom has to win her back by playing some silly games.
I think that anything up to 50-70 guests would be considered small in Greece. I do not know about medium, because for example we had 220 guests and we thought that was a medium wedding compared to my cousin’s where there were 600 guests, but I’d definitely call big a wedding with more than 300 guests.
I agree for Estonia! I’d say it’s either
* just elopement (2, only the man and women who get married),
* just some celebration with immediate family up to ca 10 people (like after the ceremony you go have a dinner in a restaurant or at home with parents and siblings)
* a small wedding like up to 25 guests (parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, maybe some cousins, closer friends)
* a medium wedding like 25-75 guest (the most usual one)
* a large wedding with 75+ guests
* a very large wedding with 100+ guests
Small wedding – at village/town/city hall and usually consist of local officials(mayor and registrar), the couple and ofc one witness for each of them. Later on they might have small party for closest family members(up to 20 people).
Medium wedding – can be either at church(mainly catholics) and party is later at other place usually close by(like hotel/restaurant etc…) or at the place where wedding is held(like hotel etc…). When it comes to people usually around 50, but can be more. This type is most common and most weddings were like this from my experience.
Large wedding – Pretty much the same as medium but with more people. Usually around 100 and more. Only rich people or people with very big families make these. For example at my sister’s wedding there was around 100 people, and pretty much 3/4 of people were from groom’s family since he got huge family(each of his parents have 5 or more siblings and he got like few dozens of cousins lol). Btw he did not even invite all of them lol.
Btw it doesn’t matter if you had your wedding at village/town/city or at the church, both are literally equal state laws wise. Ofc if you are both catholics and had wedding at village/town/city hall you can have wedding again at church.
Weddings last usually from afternoon(usually 2-3 p.m.) and start ofc with actual wedding at church or village/town/city hall(or at the place of wedding), than you will congratulate newly weds, give them gifts(usually flowers and envelope with money), than take pictures, than continue at party place(hotel/restaurant etc…) with those fun traditions, than dinner, than more fun traditions, than second dinner(around 10 p.m.), than final traditions and than just party. Ofc snacks and alcohol is always present on the tables. First guests usually leave after midnight(who have small kids or are very old), than basically around 4 a.m. majority of the people already left/are leaving.
Sorry for the long post lol.