Decided to do a civil ceremony instead of Catholic ceremony

So follow up to a post I made a week ago about how frustrated I had become trying to navigate planning a Catholic ceremony. Finally had a long discussion with my fiancé about all this and we agreed a civil ceremony was the better choice in our situation and we could convalidate at a later date.

So we've let our families know and as expected, they are completely fine with our decision.

However, I lightly suggested to my Catholic friends that my fiancé and I were considering a civil ceremony and they all flipped out and some even began bashing my fiancé, who is not Catholic. Now, I'm terrified to announce our decision to do a civil ceremony. I was considering inviting them until they began bashing my fiancé, so my fear mainly stems from them making attending my parish or participating in ministries impossible.

If anyone has any advice on how to handle this, I'd appreciate the advice. I'm not really sure how to handle sharing this with my catholic friends without sounding like a jerk.