Dinner before ceremony

That is unusual and confusing.

Google "tiered reception". There's no way to make it ok, it's incredibly rude.

So she doesn't want to serve some of her guests dinner? That's not okay if that's what you're talking about. Don't do that.

I can honestly say I've never heard of this order. I would make a traditional invitation for the ceremony and reception and put the before dinner on an enclosure card. Put the enclosure card in with the invites going to the selected dinner guests.

This sounds pretty weird and potentially super rude. Like they want to have a small dinner, then a ceremony, then a cocktail reception or something?

If the dinner is separate from the reception, I'm curious as to what kind of reception it would be? And if it IS separate, the whole thing is a rather odd arrangement.

Why not do the ceremony and then serve hors d'ouevres?

I kind of assumed it was like a small dinner for the bridal party, like a rehearsal dinner. The ceremony would be followed by a cake and punch reception. Perhaps I assumed incorrectly.

Have two invitations, one just for the dinner and then another that's ceremony time and reception time.

Many people will say this is rude, however the last 10 weddings we've had any invitation to or attended worked this way. Usually (around here), family only and bridal party/spouses attend the dinner.

You could have the dinner the night before? Or is it scheduled before the ceremony? If there's time to change, have the dinner the day before, or between ceremony and reception. People who aren't invited to the dinner will go to the ceremony, then go get some food of their own accord then come back for the reception.

I can't stress enough how normal that is here in the Maritimes of Canada lol don't let people bring you down!

Never heard of this in the west coast... Not saying it's right or wrong but definitely different.

WHY WOULD YOU EVEN HAVE A RECEPTION IF YOU ARE HAVING DINNER BEFORE THE CEREMONY?

AND YES I AM YELLING.

Because this makes no effing sense.

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/tiered-reception-fact-or-fiction/a639929428143a2e.html

ETA: Dani, first of all, welcome to Wedding Wire! There's a post at the top of the forums page explaining some normal practices. Regarding this situation, if your friend is thinking of having some people served dinner and others not, I would suggest having her ask different people about it and look around online before she gets set on it. It's considered a rude practice and hopefully she doesn't actually want to offend people.

This is asinine. Tell your friend not to do this

The bride and groom will not be at the dinner, and I'm assuming neither will the wedding party. They want an evening wedding with sunset pictures which will be on the parents farm out in a field. They did not want to have to make everyone wait until 8-8:30 for dinner, also, the guest list has gotten out of control, so they were going to have family and close friends invited to dinner which is in their barn and there is not enough room in there for a sit down for the entire guest list. Then are taking everyone to the ceremony on wagons and back to the barn which will then be converted into the reception with cocktails and heavy h'orderves, and of course cake and dancing. This is a big farm family in a small town. Just trying to make it work the way she wants it to

Wait! If their ceremony is at 6:30 why would they not eat until 8:30. Especially if it is already a cocktail reception so no cocktail hour

No - seriously, your best move as a friend is to tell her that this is a bad idea.

Never have a tiered wedding. People know and its rude!

It's going to be drama if she invites some friends to the dinner and not others. She should just skip the dinner portion or make it immediate family only. It'll make set-up for the reception a lot easier, too.

ETA: I just saw that the ceremony was at 6:30. That's dinner time... she should also push the time back if she doesn't want to feed everyone dinner.