Invitation Question

1kathie3

Do you invite the Pastor of a church you are not a member of, if you are using his facilities?  Daugter is getting married in a neighboring church, we don't have a formal building, we meet in a warehouse. We contracted with another local church to have her get married at their location.  The head pastor allowed us to use their church, for a fee of course, and with the stipulation that in addition to our own Pastor, who is marrying my daughter, that he or one of his pastors needs to perform most of the ceremony.

Are we supposed to extend and invitation to him for the reception?  We have already extened one to our own pastor who is actually performing the exchanging of the vows, as per the couple's request.

SaraAndrew2010

I would invite all clergy who are involved in the ceremony to the reception.

HKD817

I was actually wondering the same thing. We aren't getting married in a church. Our officiant is a patient of my FH. We aren't sure if we need to invite her to the wedding or not. We feel that she may not have anyone to mingle with. Wouldn't that be awkward? Needless to say we haven't made a final decision yet.

aerinpegadrak

It's a courtesy to invite any clergy involved in the ceremony to the reception.  In this case, I don't believe you'd need to invite the head pastor, but the co-officiant should definitely get an invite.  Don't worry, unless the officiant knows the couple, they will usually decline.

frenchy730

As a matter of courtesy, yes, you should invite anyone who is involved with the wedding ceremony to the reception as well.  They may not feel it is  nessecary to attend, but it's a nice gesture.

angiems97

I agree with pp.

1kathie3

Thank you to all who replied. I agree I need to invite the head Pastor as a courtesy, my only concern is the only reason he is a part of the ceremony at all is because in order to use his church he comes as a part of the package. And we do not know him outside of this situation. Our own Pastor is performing the actual exchanging of the vows and he is a personal family friend and is already invited.

Where inviting the Pastor of the church gets touchy is that it's a rather conservative church - they wouldn't allow secular music played at the ceremony.
 We are having a more "party atmosphere" at the reception with an open bar for the duration the garter toss, etc. and he wouldn't know anyone, since we only met him through our booking his church.  

Do you  think he'll be offended by the alcohol and other festivities? And where do I sit him at the wedding?

aerinpegadrak

I wouldn't worry too much about it.  Like I said, I doubt he'll even attend.