Inviting Strangers

I think it would be nice to extend an invite. Like you said, they may not come

I agree. If you can afford them, if they decide to come and it won't put you over capacity at the venue, I would invite them.

I agree with the others. They are basically giving you a honeymoon. I think they might feel a bit hurt if they don’t receive an invite

I don't think you have to invite them (nor would they expect a stranger to invite them to their wedding, they are giving the timeshare as a thank you for what you've already done...) but I do think it would be a sweet gesture.

I would probably invite them since they have given such a generous gift.

I guess I’m the odd man out, but I certainly don’t think you need to and I don’t think it looks bad if you don’t.
This gift has less to do with your party and more to do with them thanking you for something they really appreciate, and they’re seizing this opportunity. People understand that weddings are intimate moments and not every nice gesture is trying to get an in, and if you don’t have a personal relationship with them you don’t need to force one. This also leads to a perpetual cycle of thanks. You invite them, they may try to send a gift !

The basis of my job is client based. I personally would never breach the client to social relationship , and would of course never consider inviting them to my wedding. But, many were very excited for me, AND used it as an opportunity to express appreciation for what I do for them. One gifted us a gift more generous than almost any of our guests 😱, another offered to gift us our rings! In turn I simply wrote them heartfelt notes of thanks . I think there are plenty of other ways to indicate your gratefulness. You could send them flowers or a gift basket or some other indication of appreciation, but you don’t need to invite strangers to your wedding.

The long and ahort of it is: invite them only if you want them there, but don’t do it out of obligation.

It’s not too often that we find such generous strangers. I’d extend an invitation in hopes of building a relationship with these seemingly kind strangers. Their daughter is important to you, they may feel like they already know you through her. We could all use more good people in our lives.

I don't think it looks bad if you don't invite them, but I do think it's very generous if you do. I wouldn't stretch my budget to do so, but if you can afford two additional guests, why not?

Thank you for all the different opinions and advice! I’ll still have to think about what choice I’m goig with but the main reason I’m second guessing on inviting them is because we are already very close to our capacity for the venue and I don’t want them to feel like they need to gift us something more. I was planning on thanking them again by sending them pictures of the beach and give them an update on how the honeymoon went with a final thank you note/gift.

If that were me I’d feel inclined to invite them since they’re helping you with a honeymoon

View Quoted Comment This. While a nice thought, inviting them is not necessary. I would only invite them if you truly had the extra space which it seems you don’t. A heartfelt thank you, with a small token is plenty.

I had something similar happen to me for my first marriage. My aunts mother in law offered us her beach home to use for our honeymoon. I don't recall that she was invited to the wedding. I am 90% sure she was not. She lived 4 hours away, so I know she did not come. I bought her a beautiful piece of delft pottery (something she collected) and wrote her a heartfelt thank you. She was very appreciative of the thoughtfulness I put into her gift. So maybe something like an appreciation gift after the honeymoon is more appropriate than an actual invite?

View Quoted Comment I like that idea! Thank you!

I actually had this EXACT situation. LOL. I was in grad school again when we got married and a friend from school asked her parents if we could use their time share and they said yes! We thought about inviting them and almost did, but then it would have opened a wide door to include their daughter, her boyfriend and the other friends and their partners from that group. We ended up deciding not to invite them because it would have meant 8 other people... so a total of 10.

What we did do was we got them a nice bottle of wine, a thank you card and a $200 gift certificate to one of our favorite fancy restaurants. They saved us a TON of money when I was unemployed because of school and so we felt like a generous gift was appropriate. They enjoyed their dinner, took my friend and I think it was a really nice way to handle it.

If you do decide to invite them, I would still give them some token if you can.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for your input! I thought the invite would “open a wide door” too. We are so grateful and blessed from their gift. We weren’t sure if we would do a honeymoon since we’re looking to start a family right away and would have rather saved the extra money. Now we can enjoy some time alone lol before a family comes along.

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It was the same for us. With me in school and not earning, it just wasn't feasible. We were able to save over 50% on an amazing trip and upgrade a couple things to make it nicer because of their generosity to some girl they had never met! I hope you get to really enjoy! Do you know where you're going yet?

View Quoted Comment Were going to Panama City Beach, Florida. Where did you end up going?

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The timeshare they had was through Secrets all inclusives. We went to the Dominican and it was so great. I hope you have a GREAT time!