Inviting Guests to Ceremony but not Reception

Hi everyone just wondering if anyone has to deal with this situation ...my parents want to invite the world but to be realistic i cant have everyone ...is it fair to invite allot of people and have a large ceremony and have a small intimate reception ?.....i plan on having appox 200-300 MAX for the ceremony and MAX 150 for the reception

please help

i was wondering the same thing. I want to invite people from work, but I can't invite them to the reception. A lot of them plan on coming to the ceremony anyway (they know we are way over our limit for the RH already so they aren't mad about it)...and i work in a hospital...i know EVERYONE...but idk how to go about doing this.

ETA: btw, i would never expect a gift from people who just wanted to show up for the church....that would be rude. And to clarify, these people i've worked with for 5+ years. They know that if I get enough no's they are def. invited, but bc of a certain someone we are way over our guest limit.

i was wondering about this too. how do you let people know they are just invited to the church and not the wedding?

do you think when they rsvp they will ask where they receptioin card is?

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Posted by kristi313

i'd have to say it's not a good idea, i think it's all or nothing.

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i was thinking thiss too but its soo hard to eliminate people i have such a long guest llist

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Posted by 040508Bride

i was wondering the same thing. I want to invite people from work, but I can't invite them to the reception. A lot of them plan on coming to the ceremony anyway (they know we are way over our limit for the RH already so they aren't mad about it)...and i work in a hospital...i know EVERYONE...but idk how to go about doing this.

ETA: btw, i would never expect a gift from people who just wanted to show up for the church....that would be rude. And to clarify, these people i've worked with for 5+ years. They know that if I get enough no's they are def. invited, but bc of a certain someone we are way over our guest limit.

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if ppl from work say they want to at least go to the ceremony and dont even expect to go to the reception then that is different...but otherwise i dont know how that would work...i mean they would get an invite for the ceremony and then wonder what about RH info, and then you would have to tell each one oh no you're not invited to that. Unless somehow you say it in the invitation

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Posted by kristi313

i'd have to say it's not a good idea, i think it's all or nothing.

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Agreed. Although I'm going to open the invite to the ceremony to my dance students because they keep saying they want to see me in my dress and see me get married, etc. Not a formal invite though...2 other teachers did this for their weddings and it worked out very nicely.

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Posted by dancinmyazoff

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Posted by kristi313

i'd have to say it's not a good idea, i think it's all or nothing.

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Agreed. Although I'm going to open the invite to the ceremony to my dance students because they keep saying they want to see me in my dress and see me get married, etc. Not a formal invite though...2 other teachers did this for their weddings and it worked out very nicely.

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see that's different, they asked to see the ceremony and that's it. totally fine. i couldn't do this b/c my ceremony is at the RH

even if it weren't i wouldn't invite people to the ceremony and not the RH it's just right in my mind. people can obviously do whatever they like. maybe approach this by word of mouth invitations, not formal in the mail invitations, totally different in a way b/c it'll be like oh yeah the ceremony is at blah at blah pm you should try to make it done!

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Posted by kristi313

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Posted by dancinmyazoff

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Posted by kristi313

i'd have to say it's not a good idea, i think it's all or nothing.

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Agreed. Although I'm going to open the invite to the ceremony to my dance students because they keep saying they want to see me in my dress and see me get married, etc. Not a formal invite though...2 other teachers did this for their weddings and it worked out very nicely.

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see that's different, they asked to see the ceremony and that's it. totally fine. i couldn't do this b/c my ceremony is at the RH

even if it weren't i wouldn't invite people to the ceremony and not the RH it's just right in my mind. people can obviously do whatever they like. maybe approach this by word of mouth invitations, not formal in the mail invitations, totally different in a way b/c it'll be like oh yeah the ceremony is at blah at blah pm you should try to make it done!

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yeah i think the dance students coming is fine, again they are coming with no expectations of going to the RH and they are the ones who said we would love to at least go to JUST the ceremony...its different if its someone you're not really close with but otherwise ppl would be like uhmmm wait so i can go to the ceremony not the reception

i know you're trying your best to include those you care about as best you can for your big occassion, but there's a really thin line there as far as being honored for just being able to attend the actual union to feeling resentful that your relationship wasnt close enough for an invite to the reception~and since that line is so thin, my suggestion is you don't do it, but i do see where your heart is at & i understand