Invite to Ceremony ONLY?

In all honesty, I consider inviting someone to the reception only is in terribly bad taste. It's like saying one person is better than another. For example, "You are good enough to get invited to the reception and get fed, and you are not."

I'll have to agree with Carole. I was going to do the same thing and then my mom told me it was out of the question lol. Then I was invited to a wedding and it said smack dab on the front "Wedding ONLY Invite" I felt terrible Now if someone invites themselves to he wedding only than thats a diff story. I've had ppl tell me that they only wanna come to the ceremony, not the reception lol. Thats fine with me!

I think that the only way to really pull of having some guests come to the ceremony and not the reception would be to have them at different locations and let the guests going to the reception to be discreet. However, I think that there are a lot of other ways to save. If you really want to save, have your wedding early afternoon and have hors d'oveours (sorry if I misspelled that) with fruit and veggie platters and punch. As long as people know this information ahead of time and they have time to plan for eating a big lunch, I personally don't see a problem. My future SIL is also getting married next year and was able to have her wedding at about 1/2 the normal price at a certain venue because she is having it on a Thursday night. Although I can't say I'm thrilled that I will have to take off early from work and not be able to stay out late (cause we have to go to work on Friday), I completely understand and I care enough about her to go.

You can do it the other way around (private ceremony, reception only invites) but it is rude to invite someone only to the wedding. It's like saying, "Hey, I'll take a gift from you but I'm not going to feed you and I don't want to hang out with you."

Agreed. I don't even want to send wedding announcements because I feel like I personally wouldn't appreciate getting a, "we got married, fyi." I don't, something about announcements rub me the wrong way. I'd personally never do ceremony only, just wanted the forum's opinion!

I got one of these invites years ago, thought it was totally rude and RSVP'd no... So I have no clue how it all turned out. Couldnt figure out why my old college roommate wanted me to drive 5 hours and then have to find my own food (she did offer that I could camp in her parents back yard though?!?!).

If you can't afford to have them at the reception, don't invite them. It peeves me when people invite guest only to the ceremony.

The ONLY time I've seen this work is when the youth minister at my church got married. They had an open invitation to the ceremony (invited via church bulletin), and invited family/friends to the reception separately via "normal" invitation. But, that's a bit different situation - that was a semi-public figure (in the church), and the members of the congregation knew that if they didn't personally know the couple, they weren't going to be invited to the reception.

If it's for no other reason than to save money, I'd cut the entire guest list to a point that was affordable.

I think it would be incredibly rude to do a ceremony invite only. Like others have said, it is like telling that person you aren't good enough for us to feed you or hang out with for 5 hours.

We are having our reception before the wedding. It is going to be family and close friends only. Then we will have the ceremony and have light hors d'oeuvres along with the cake and champage. We will also have other drinks. We decided to do it this way because it cuts down on the number of people we have to serve a full meal and also paying so much for bar service per person when everyone is not drinking. We are saving about $4,000 this way!!!!

Very rude..I was invited to a wedding last year..ceremony only and not reception. And this was from someone who I am pretty close with.

When I rsvp'd no, she asked why...and I told her....I didn't like only being invited to the ceremony. I mean lets face it, the reception is what people really go to weddings for.

Ashley A: Ya, I know a few like teachers from high school did the same thing. Any of their students could come to the ceremony, but it was kinda a given that that was it. In fact, we were never told where the reception was so no smarty pants would get ideas to crash it.

Jessica C: Beyond rude!

Ednabugg: Indeed, I mean the reception is really where you get the chance to actually talk to the couple and hang out and celebrate.

Never done except if you are inviting a whole congregation to the ceremony with the tacit knowledge that they are there because they are part of the congregation (like you're a youth minister, church deacon,etc. They are all invited to a simple coffee and cake thing and that's it.

But it's totally rude to just invite someone to the ceremony.

I am in this "pickle" not because of budget, but because of the type of reception I'm having. A big bulk of the people invited to my wedding are very religious and I'm having a secular reception. I don't want anyone to be uncomfortable and leave my reception...especially if I'm paying 72 bucks a head for this sha-bang! If I don't invite them, of course their feelings will be crushed and if I do invite them and they leave or act stuffy because they are uncomfortable, I'm going to be upset if their attitudes stink up the place!

Solution: Receiving line and light refreshments after ceremony for everyone, focusing on people not coming to dinner. Carefully worded invitations (Dinner for family and bridal party after refreshments---or something to that effect).

I really don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Any suggestions?

I really dislike the current trend of having some to the ceremony, some to this and cake only, some to the full day and others to the evening only! very distasteful and an insult to put people into tiers of friendship, better not to invite at all . Better the old way - one wedding ceremony, one reception, if I like you enough to want you at my wedding then I value you enough to have you at the main event and feed you!

View Quoted Comment I have a similar situation. Well not the religious aspect, but my reception hall is a lot smaller than the ceremony hall. I am doing light refreshments right after the ceremony so I can talk to the guests who won’t be at the reception and so they can still feel a part of it. I am going to include a line about it being close friends and family at the reception due to space on our invites. I really don’t want to be rude to anyone or hurt people’s feelings but there are people who I would love to see and talk to a bit after the ceremony but everyone just won’t fit in the reception hall! It’s kind of stressing me out because everyone keeps saying it’s rude, but I really don’t feel like it is. If it was their wedding, I would respect how they chose to do it. I support you doing your wedding however you want to do it to cause the least amount of uncomfortableness. Me and my fiancé have chosen to not have alcohol at our wedding because his family is strongly against it. So there’s a lot of figuring it out and doing it how you want it and what will be best in the end.