My first wedding (my first husband is deceased) had 18 people in attendance. The entire ceremony and dinner reception were traditional, just small. The ceremony was at St. Mary's and then we had dinner at La Bergerie, which sadly has been closed for a while. I wore a regular bridal gown and my sister who was my maid of honor wore a beautiful bridesmaids dress. We did flowers, a wedding cake, the whole enchilada.
In fact the cake ... it was a 3-tiered wedding cake. The tiers were small but still there were 3 of them!
Yes, I think some people felt left out but we both felt pretty strongly (for different reasons) about keeping it small and intimate. We sent out announcements after the fact. We did not have a big party or anything like that to celebrate our one-year anniversary or anything like that.
I think your plan sounds lovely, OP. I hope that you have a wonderful wedding ceremony and celebration, and I wish you and your future spouse many years of happiness together.