Invite to Reception Only?

heatherleec

Hi Everyone,I'm new here, but have a question that I would love your advice on. My church only allows Saturday weddings to take place until 1:00 pm but I would prefer to have an evening reception. I don't want to put my guests out by having a long time between the events, so it is possible to invite people only to the reception, and tell them when the cereomony is only if they ask?

jgreg29

Personally, I would prefer to deal with the time in between the two rather than be invited to the reception only.  I've also had friends who were invited to the reception only of a wedding and their feelings were very hurt.  Perhaps you could put both the ceremony and reception time on the invitation and then tell people when you next speak with them that you would love to see them at both but understand if they would prefer to only come to the reception only because of the big time difference.

krisdoug13

Personally, one of my fiance's friends got married this summer.  They did a small ceremony and bigger reception.  My fiance's parents were part of the group only invited to the reception and were very insulted!  I agree, I think it is rude to not invite someone to the ceremony but invite them to the reception.  The whole purpose is you want people who are important to you to witness your marriage...not just come for the party and bring a gift/money.  Also, we went to another wedding this summer where the reception was very early in the afternoon (like 1 or 2) and the reception followed.  They still served a meal at 5ish; so there was a very long social hour...which gave them plenty of time for pics! As a guest I didn't mind this...it was a HS friend of my fiance so for him it was nice to catch up with some of his old friends.  Doing it this way would allow your guests to make the decision of whether they want the long break between the reception & ceremony, and whether or not they will go to the ceremony.  Hope this helps!

MJsGirl09

I agree with the previous post.  I think that its rude to not invite people to both.  The people on your invite list are those you want to witness your special moment, so why invite them only to the party?  I dont think its right.

MiniMin20

I don't have any experience with a wedding like this, so maybe my opinion would be different if I did, but I don't think it's rude. I can see how someone would want to have a small, private family-only ceremony, and then a big reception afterward. I know some people really hate the idea of standing up in front of so many people and being the center of attention, so a small ceremony would be more their style. As long as guests understand the ceremony is small and immediate family only, I think most people would be okay with it. I think you'd run into problems, though, trying to pick and choose which guests were invited to the ceremony if you weren't making it just immediate family. That might hurt feelings and confuse people. So, I'd say make the ceremony immediate family only if you want to try and only invite people to the reception.But if you don't want to do that, and if you're set on the evening reception, maybe you could figure out something for people to do in between the ceremony and reception, like a visit to a local landmark, or have a list of places people could visit in between.If it were me, though, I'd reconsider having the evening reception and just have it following the ceremony. I think it would be less work and less stress than trying to figure out what people should do in between. You can always have some kind of after-party or encourage people to go out somewhere (a restaurant, bar, etc.) after the reception if you want to keep partying.Just my (long) two cents!

CharPoulin

I don't think it's rude at all! A friend of mine chose to have a smaller ceremony with just parents/close family and a bigger reception. I don't think there was anyone that was offended. Plenty of people also get married and have receptions at later dates. Remember either way you handle it there is always someone that is going to consider whatever you choose to do rude.

MiniMin20

Oh, that's so true Char! I feel like no matter what you do, someone will always be unhappy about it, or make a comment, etc. You can't please everyone!