Open ceremony but private reception!?!?!?

How many people are trying invite to the reception?

At first I read that and was like what? I think as long as you have a short reception for all the people you invited to the ceremony, your plan could work. I just think it's really rude to invite people to your ceremony but not the reception. But if you have a small reception after the ceremony for church folks, I don't see why this won't work. Just be prepared for it to be a LONG night as 2 receptions could be a challenge. Just because you have the wedding at the church, doesn't mean you HAVE to invite EVERYONE to your wedding. You could choose to be more selective in who you are inviting and only have those people at your wedding and reception that you truly know and love. Just my two cents....I do understand why you are doing what you are doing......you might need to have 2 sets of invitations as well. One set that says reception immediately following at the church...and then one set that states the reception venue for the dinner. It could be confusing keeping track of who you invited where. Save yourself the headaches and just figure out who you really want to be there on your big day!

I guess I'm confused what you're asking. The church(es) will post a wedding announcement on the bulliten board and the congregation will come to your wedding. Celia usually does a good job explaining how this works, since it's common with churches. Just send invitations to those who you are inviting to the evening reception and treat the church guests to a cake and punch reception.

It's hard not to invite members to a wedding if you have it at the church. And it's very common to do this like have something at the church after and then private dinner. If we do something at the church im going to estimate 230 maybe. His mom has like 50-60 guest of her own. I can let her handle that part of our celebration.

So no invitations to church members just those who are apart of ceremony and dinner reception. Ok. I can handle that. I still would like those members to RSVP so we can have enough treats. Should I just put the info in flyer.

Invite everybody to everything. Tiered weddings are rude. Cocktail hour in a church basement? Most churches do not allow alcohol on their premises.

@Joanne , tiered church receptions are common. Churches are always open and weddings are usually always open to the congregation.

I'm having an open reception as well and my solution is: all invited to ceremony but reception is by invite only. However we will have a "Punch, Poundcake and Photos" gathering immediately after the ceremony for those who are NOT attending the reception. Our church is used to this as it has been done in the past, so I don't think anyone will be offended. Our guest list is about 200 so far so we have accommodated most but not all.

@Deedee that sounds like fun. We want to do a receiving line so that we can greet everyone and then they go downstairs for refreshments. And we can still take pictures at the church and we are done we can just pretty much say ty and leave because we spoke to everyone already.

Well that's why I'm thinking if we do meatballs and chicken well more then just sweets we would be ok. As long as there is food it should be ok right? I don't want to start at 3 or earlier because that's just a long day. We want to enjoy the night. Our reception will end 12a or 1a.

And the ceremony will only be like 20 mins.

By cocktail reception at the church i mean the set up not alcohol.

Is the ceremony at the church these church members attend? Because you said two congregations? If you invite members of a different church, then the rules of inviting congregations without a full reception don't apply.

We're doing this too. Open church wedding with a reception with sweets and apps in lieu of cocktail hour, and then having dinner that is invite only. BUT wedding is at 3pm, and dinner won't be until 5pm

We will announce the wedding to our congregation via bulletin and weekly announcements, and formal invites will be issued to those who are invited to the dinner.

Why are you Inviting the entire church? Both of them? That's insane. You don't know all those people why would they be invited to your wedding

Ceremony at our church. We are inviting his mother church members.

My post got eaten.....

This is not a tiered reception and it's not rude. It is very, very common, and most church members will get it. It has likely happened before.

You have the minister announce it from the pulpit and you put it in the bulletin. You do not send invites (whew, right?)

You host a short reception at the church, very similar to a Sunday coffee hour; coffee, cake, punch, coffee. You mingle for 30-45 minutes.

When you order food, be very conservative in quantity, and ideally, pick things like cookies, cupcakes, that could be packed up for the end of the family reception.

And do NOT do a receiving line. it will take forever. Just circulate around the room and say your hellos. No one wants to stand in line for a 10 second hello.

I need to rephrase this.... We are not inviting her whole church. She has about 50 friends from her church she wants to invite. And about 10 co workers or other friends. We have a small church and I don't believe everyone will come but I don't want to pick and choose because we are having the wedding there.

I was thinking if we do the receiving line it would help keep the crowd flowing and our bp can take pictures or w/e . It would just be bride and grown and parents.

I'm sorry, but I DO think this is a tiered reception and is an absolute no-no. First of all, you're not inviting all church members, which you would have to do if this was to follow the regular church reception guidelines. Secondly, these church members aren't even at YOUR church. They're at your mother's church. You can't do this. Everyone invited must be hosted at one reception.