Okay. I know in the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal but it really bothers me that people just want to go to the reception but not the ceremony. I find it rude. The reception is where you can thank your guests for coming. I just see people going to the reception to eat and go to a party. I just came back from a marriage prep retreat and my mind shift has allowed me to re-focus. The wedding planning was fun and stressful but now I have so much more respect for the ceremony. To put it bluntly, it's a slap in the face to only go to the reception.
We have one couple who did this - just RSVP for the reception and declined with the ceremony. They have 2 teenagers, it's on a weekend and we gave them 8 months in advance with the "Save the date". They're also local. Anyhoo, I guess I should get used to do this by now. Not everyone has the best manners with weddings and the people who are really important will be at the ceremony. And even before we got married, I had family members (on my side) whom I have not seen in a long time just go straight up to us with, "when's your wedding?", no small talk or "hello". You don't care about us, you just care about going to a party and that alone makes me not want to invite you haha
Possible solutions:
I'm on zola and have given guests the option to RSVP on the card or do it online. With zola - they have you write down your events - ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception. I don't know if there's a way to just have guests RSVP once.
Also - I'm not gonna stress if people don't show up to things but i guess it's more of a reminder of where they stand and who they are (the whole manners thing says a lot about a person). For example - we're having a cocktail hour and we plan to take pics with our guests then vs. during dinner (i've seen some people go around tables during dinner or people take pics with the newlyweds before going to the buffet line). We added on our website that we encourage guests to be prompt and if some don't show up and complain that we didn't take pics with them, then it's their fault. Not ours.
