Disclose Dry Wedding and No Dancing?

Just tell people by word of mouth, and don't expect people to stick around the whole time.

I am going to a dry wedding and I appreciated that they let us know about it. I think it would be nice for people to know ahead of time.

ETA: this wasn't listed on the invitation, but rather on their wedding website that they shared with everyone.

Churches against dancing? I get having music regulations, but I'm honestly just curious - do you live in Footloose?!

I would not put it on your invitations. "No alcohol, no dancing" makes it sound like "No fun allowed." I'd just spread by word of mouth that it'll be a short, dry reception and people will be heading to the casino afterward. If there's no DJ or dance music and it's a daytime wedding at a church, people will put the pieces together and figure out there's no dancing.

"Only one side" will want alcohol and dancing? What a great way to start your theoretical blending of two families, by completely discounting one whole side of them, in the name of religion (I've frankly never really gotten this...."David danced before the lord"....there is plenty of wine and dancing in the bible, it's humans who mutated that into "OH NO, NONE OF THAT")

It's rude. Have punch and cake and let them go home. Or out. The one side that is.

Don't put it on your invitation, just mention it to some people who will spread the word. I wouldn't expect much dancing at a daytime wedding anyway.

I don't think you ever need to disclose that there won't be dancing -- that's not something people take for granted, in my experience. Since yours is a daytime wedding at a church, I don't think you need to officially disclose that it's dry, either. If you want to pass the info by word of mouth, go nuts! That seems to be the safest way to pass a lot of info, etiquette-wise.

And commence the "This is a bad idea because I don't understand it" comments.

Rather than saying "No Dancing" I would say something to explain what you WILL be having, like "Seated Dinner Reception" to follow or something like that. "Cake and Punch" to me would say no dancing, depends if you are serving dinner.

I would spread the news by word of mouth. I would also maybe spread the casino thing that way too. Sending an invite implies that you will be hosting it but if you simply encourage people to join you at the casino, I think it will be understood that it's just a group night out type of thing.

How long is the reception?

Do you have a wedding website? You can put those sort of details on there and spread it by word of mouth. On the invite doesn't seem "inviting".

Hey, I'm trying to understand it, I had no idea there were churches that didn't allow dancing.

Yep. I invited a Baptist girl to my tenth birthday party. We had a limo and some of the girls turned the tunes up (a rap song) and we were all dancing. Poor girl BURST into tears and demanded we let her out because of the music and dancing. The limo was a surprise from my dad and I had no idea it was against her religion to do either of those things.

What @Celia said. That woman is so full of knowledge it scares me sometimes. I completely agree, food, punch, cake, go home.

One side of the family will want it?

So basically, you're being rude to HALF your guests?

What about the HALF of your guests that like drinking and dancing? To me it seems like you favor one side over the other.

Reception is only going to be from 1-3. So, lunch and cake and some pictures and then everyone can go.

We are blending just fine. My FH and I are not huge dancers, our pic on here is from a Black and White ball we went to this year. I think we danced to 2 songs the whole night. We had a great time.

Our family is a little older, my Fathers side, who will want the dancing, drinking, would be sneaking out to smoke weed anyway, so, yes, I am discounting them in a fashion.

Thanks for the advice so far.

@m, my FHs sister got married at a church and had the reception there as well. They first said dancing was ok and then about two days before they were suddenly informed that dancing was a no-go. So yeah, some Baptist churches frown upon dancing. I also never got why so many churches in the US condemn drinking, in my catholic church while growing up, there was always wine as christ's blood.

M - Baptist, or types of Baptists, are very strict with the dancing thing. I don't much more detail than that though.

We had a dry wedding and no one danced, besides us for a first dance. That was our crowd and how the majority of our families, on both sides, are - Baptist (DH's side) and Christian (both of our sides). We expected this and therefore planned an afternoon reception that was about 2 hours long. We also provided entertainment to cater to our guests and planned for an afternoon outdoor music festival type feel and had a bluegrass band play.

We gave a heads up to our friends by passing this information by word of mouth and then did an after party with our friends. You can always open a tab to cover drinks for your friends when going out. Our friends didn't let us and they insisted on buying our drinks, which was very nice of them. It was really nice to be able to celebrate both ways with both sides of our lives - the conservative family and our friends.