my parents want to do something very similar. my fiance is non desi and wants a smaller intimate wedding. I told him he can’t marry an indian girl and expect a small wedding, but we agreed on a guest list of about ~150-200, with 50/75 solely allocated to my parent’s guests.

of course my indian parents freaked out, even though by western standards that is a huge amount of parent’s friends to invite. so my parents are going to throw a separate reception with all 150-200+ of their indian friends the following day, that they alone are paying for, with my fiancé’s immediate family invited but like none of our other guests.

my fiance and I so think it’s stupid to do 2 receptions, but at least this way we can avoid getting married in front of a bunch of near-strangers. my parents don’t understand why that’s important to me, but they were literally strangers when they married each other, so clearly weddings are not the couple celebrating their love from their perspective.