invitation wording

swag713

my fiance wants this huge,big wedding and i really want the small wedding (i get very nervous when all attention is all on me). We decided to have a small ceremony and then have a HUGE reception, but the only problem im coming across is the wording for our invitations. i wanted to keep it to family and close friends for the ceremony but how do i word it on the invites "family only,everyone else come to the reception" without being ignorant? should i just give in and invite everyone to the wedding and see who shows up?

shortee426

To answer your questions:

You would send everyone an invite to the reception and you include an insert for those invited to the ceremony with all of that information.

To give my opinion:

If you are going to do this, keep the ceremony really really REALLY small.  Like parents, siblings, grandparents ONLY.  No more than 20 people.  Once you start inviting some friends and some extended family is when feelers get hurt and when you look like you were picking and choosing who your faves are (even if that isn't what you were intentionally doing).

GeauxTigers17

You word the invitation as an invite to a reception- Crane's has an example if you just google "Crane's wedding etiquette." Then, you put the ceremony information on an insert for those invited. It would just say "The honour of your presence is requested at the ceremony/place/time/etc. I'm 90% sure Crane's also has an example of this online, but if it isn't there, the Crane's Blue Book definitely has it.

banana468

You would issue invitations to the reception.  Then enclosure cards would be given to those invited to the ceremony.

However as PPs said, please tread carefully as you do this and keep the ceremony truly intimate.   If you're inviting over 20 people to the ceremony, I think you're going to have some very hurt feelings.