Where at?

Our civil ceremony took place in Western North Carolina. We wanted to get married quickly so we could send the Green Card application that would allow us not to be separated again and for the same reason I simply couldn't leave the country without the risk of not being able to come back unless under a special visa.

So when we announced around us that we would be having a family wedding I should not have been surprised that most people said: "So it will be in France right?".

Well no. It shocked people and I even had some rude comments when I said so, but still: NO!

Sure it would have been great to have a wedding in my home country, to make sure that the 30+ members of my family plus the friends could be there, I would have loved that.
Americans have such a romantic idea of France too. Not to mention that I would have had plenty of people more than willing to help and probably cook the food.
And yes I could have finally shared with my husband the place where I grew up.

But there are also many thing that told me not to do that. The first one being that I am not sure when I will get my green card. At the time we took the decision I though it would take maybe 6 months to get an interview, with the risk of the FBI namecheck still pending until???. You cannot make plans for the time when you will have your green card. Without it, if I can leave the country, I can't some back without a spouse visa, and re-starting and paying again for the AOS. So no way it is too big of a risk.

But if I had had the card in my hands, would it have changed anything? Well maybe not.
I wanted to have a full wedding in the US so it would be close to us and easy to organize. I didn't want to find the place online and have my parents do all the work.
I have also dreamed for many years to be married outside, something that is very rare in France.
Not to mention that it is a wonderful opportunity to share the place where we live with my family, my parents and those who can make it.

So even if some people though that our decision was not appropriate, not respectful to my family, I say too bad. We made our choice and I am happy with it. Not to mention that even though we are having this wedding ceremony so we can share it with more people this time, it is still OUR wedding, and I find it very normal that we make it what we want.

Edit (June 6th): I finally received our interview notice, the Green Card is a bit closer. But I am still happy we made the decision to have the wedding here, I can't imagine the stress it would have been to wait for it and not be sure if I could make it to my own wedding.