Hello! My fiancee is from New York, and I'm from Illinois. We are having our wedding and reception in IL in June; however, we want to have something in New York that my fiancee's friends can come to if they don't want to spend the money to travel to IL. We are thinking of having a kind of reception/party in NY about two weeks before our wedding day in IL. That way, it's not a shower, so it's more open to men and people of all ages. It would just be an outdoor picnic at a park with catered food.
Do you think we should call this a pre-ception or an engagement party or a shower of sorts? Is it ok to have it before the wedding? Do you think we can invite some people (from his church and community) who won't be receiving wedding invitations but who would likely want to come? Perhaps that's a bad idea. There are just so many people, and we can't invite them all to the wedding.