Tough invitation wording!

CincoDeMayoWedding

Hey everyone, we are having our ceremony in Las Vegas, NV on May 5th.  Everyone is welcome to come to the ceremony, but frankly, living in Illinois we understand that not too many will be able to afford the trip.  A week later on May 13, we are having a huge reception in our hometown.  I am confused on how to send out the invitation.  I am pretty sure we are going to send the large invitation with the reception date to everyone, with a smaller add on card with the ceremony time and date that says, "Attendence welcome".  Also, our chapel is going to webcast the ceremony so those at home can still watch us get married, so we need to give out the website information.  I am confused how to word it so that those that cannot afford it do not feel pressured to come.  Help!   Thanks in advance.
Brittany

banana468

I'm confused.  Are you hosting anything after the ceremony?  If you're just saying that guests are welcome to make the flight but you have no intention of hosting them post ceremony then that's something to invite people to via word of mouth.  It's the long distance version of a Catholic Nuptial Mass that's open to the public.

Your invitations would just invite people to the reception to be held one week after the wedding itself.  It would say, X and Y will be married on Z date in Las Vegas.  Please join them for a reception at A place on B date.

aerinpegadrak

If you explicitly invite anyone to watch the part that legally makes you married, you have to feed them afterward.  That's not negotiable, and parties after the day of the wedding do not absolve you of that responsibility.  Sending them any sort of written information about the wedding is explicitly inviting them.

Banana's suggestions are good ones.  But please, invite people or don't.  None of this wishy-washy "well, you can come if you want, we don't care either way and aren't going to acknowledge the money you've spent getting there to see us get married."