Ceremony Only Invites?

kag0215

First off I would just like to say that I am fully aware that 95% of the time ceremony only invites are rude, but here's the situation.

My FI and I are getting married in the church that I grew up in. The congregation consists of about 3 dozen people now, and they have all known me my whole life. These people were there when I was baptized, got confirmed, graduated high school, etc. Not only were they there for all that, but they were also there when my parents and my aunt and uncle got married there. Because of all this my dad feels very strongly that they should be invited to the ceremony, but both our reception venue and budget are too small to invite them to the reception. My parents are paying for the wedding so they do have a big say.

I would love for all of them to be there, but since most of them are older (70s-80s), conservative, and very etiquette minded I am worried about offending them if I only invite them to the ceremony. There is definitely no way I can invite them to the reception; it is not an option. Any suggestions would be great!

squeakyduck

I have the exact same dilemma. My congregation is small enough to invite everyone and still have seating left over. the building seriously seats 400. I do like the punch and cake idea, but it costs another $500 to use the reception hall.