Invites to Alternative Receptions

ULTRANERDX

My fiance and I are getting married where we live (Washington, DC) but our families are from Ohio and Long Island, NY. My parents are planning to host a party after the wedding for guests who couldn't make it to the wedding and/or those who we were unable to invite because of space restraints (our reception location can only hold 150 guests comfortably, and my family alone is 45 people). How do we go about making it clear to guests that we don't expect them to travel if they can't afford it/don't want to, and that they're invited to the Ohio party as well? How do we invite people to the post-wedding party who were not invited to the wedding itself without offending them? We honestly aren't fishing for gifts--we don't even necessarily expect/want gifts at the post-wedding party--we just want to give people the opportunity to celebrate with us if they'd like to.

ULTRANERDX

Thanks--the two separate invites is good advice. I'll relay the information to my parents. @jilybeans4 - Regarding the number of guests, I'm shocked that you can't fathom filling up a list of more than 150 with close family and friends. Between my family, his family, and our CLOSE friends we're over 150...we can't exactly not invite any of our parents' close friends!

aerinpegadrak

Yeah, definitely do two invites, and let your parents handle it.  That way it's less of a "let's continue the wedding festivities" and more of "hey, our kids got married, come meet them!"

danieliza1127

ultra - our friends had a small wedding in NC last year in the city they live in and then had a large reception a month later in IN for those that couldn't come to the NC wedding.  They sent invitations to the NC wedding that had the NC wedding info on the face of the invitation and an insert with the information for the IN reception.  The rsvp card had a spot for both, so you could indicate whether you were coming to both or just one or the other.  I think that the people who were not invited to the small NC wedding just got an invitation to the IN reception only, which is perfectly acceptable.  I hope that helps.