Do you need to have guest RSVP if they will only be invited to reception dance?

This is incredibly rude. You need a new plan.

My suggestion:

Don't do this. It's extremely rude to invite people just to dance.

I recommend just cutting your guest list. I've never heard of dance only. I think people will be confused and then will show up for dinner. Cut your list , I think this will be the easiest way for everyone.

Amber, that is called a tiered reception and it is extremely rude. I would advice rethinking this plan all together. You are essentially saying that only some of your friends/family are good enough for you to invite to the ceremony and for you to pay to feed them.

Oh no, don't do this. This is a tiered reception, and its very rude.

My FMIL wants to do this as well, but I am not allowing it. We cut our guest list to the number of people we can afford, and yes, that meant we cut out her 20 something friends.

Besides knowing that this is incredibly rude, what if for some reason your schedule gets pushed out and people begin arriving for the "reception only" during the middle of dinner? How do you think they'd feel knowing that they weren't good enough to receive dinner?

Bad idea. New plan, ASAP.

As everyone else has stated, this is not a good idea. You should figure something else out.

I've had this happen to me one time... this is how it sounded:

"Hey, don't really want to pay for you to eat, and you're not important enough to actually WATCH me get married, but wanna travel to a wedding for an hour or so to dance and give me money?"

Super shitty.

Ugh. Come on? How could you possibly think this is in anyway okay? This is terribly rude.

Wow, I also find this incredibly rude! What if some people arrive early, or you run late ? Then they get to stand around and watch the "important" guests eat, while they stand there with hurt feelings wondering why they werent important enough to invite to everything.

If you are not super close with people, why would you invite them to your wedding? Keep your guest list to 50.

This is a terrible idea, Amber. There will be many many others who will tell you the same thing. If you cannot afford to properly host your guests then cut your list. I would be extremely offended if this happened to me.

After I got that invite like the one you are describing, I knew the friendship was over.

OP, strongly advise to nix this idea as soon as possible.

Welcome to wedding wire!

Amber, I really hope you're not a troll... With that said, please reconsider this. This is very rude and will be very inconsiderate of your guests. Cut your guest list so that everyone can attend both, or just have cake and punch reception.

Two possible solutions:

1. You host those two big families and close friends, all 50 guests, from the moment the ceremony starts until the moment the reception ends. You don't invite the other 150 guests that you can't/won't host properly.

2. You postpone the wedding until you can afford to host those two big families, close friends, and those "friends we're not super close with", all 200 guests, from the moment the ceremony starts until the moment the reception ends.

I would be so offended to receive an invitation to this type of tiered wedding that I might break my own rule about RSVPing on time -- as in, I probably wouldn't respond at all because that type of invitation doesn't warrant a response.

Please, don't do this. It's an awful thing to do -- words like cheap, attention seeking, and gift grabby come to mind, and that's not the way you want people to think of you, even if they are friends you aren't super close to.

And please, don't say it's regional.

How would you feel if someone invited you to Christmas dinner, but told you only to come after dinner to watch everyone else open presents? That's kind of what this is like.

Super fucking rude.

Do not invite anyone to the "dance" who isn't invited to the dinner. You don't like them enough to pay for their dinner but you want them to dress up and buy you a gift so they have the "honor" of attending the rest of the reception?

Honestly this is one of the very few etiquette things that makes my blood boil. It is beyond rude and quite frankly disgusting. If I received an invitation like this I would no longer consider you a friend.

What in the actual fuck??

Why even invite these people?