Reception only guest

"You're invited to the Wedding Reception of _____ and _____"

"PLease join us in celebrating our marriage by joining us at our reception"

just use the word "reception" anywhere on the invite and you'll be fine.

View Quoted Comment Thank you! I wasn’t sure how to word it and if it was rude to only invite people to my ceremony only

You shouldn’t. This is incredibly rude. Either invite all of your guests to the entire event or cut the guest list to those that you can accommodate.

People do get offended when they are only invited to half of the event because it is impolite. Is there a reason why you are unable to have the ceremony at the reception venue?

TBH...I'd rather be invited to the reception than the ceremony. This dilemma has been very common during Covid with smaller ceremonies and large receptions after. You could always livestream your ceremony for those who aren't invited to attend but would like to see it.

View Quoted Comment

You shouldn't invite people to the ceremony only. If they come to the ceremony they must be invited to the reception also.

Inviting people to just the reception is not rude. It happens all the time for many different reasons. (religious ceremony where those outside the religion cant attend, wanting it more intimate and private, etc) Sure, you might get a handful of people who are offended (but lets be honest, ANY wedding decision you make is never going to please everyone!)

As long as you are doing what makes you happy, don't worry too much about it! Make sure your invitation and RSVP is clear and says "Reception" and not "wedding", since wedding implies the ceremony as well.

Best of luck! Don't let others get you down about this!

I almost did the exact same thing where I had a smaller ceremony and larger reception. Ultimately we decided to just cut down our list and invite everyone to both. I would understand if someone invited me to the reception and not ceremony. But maybe try to make a break between the two? Like only family and bridal party to ceremony? Good luck, I hope they both turn out beautiful!

View Quoted Comment

It's impolite to invite people to the ceremony, because you need to thank them for attending and for their support. That's what the reception is for.

Inviting a (very) small group for a private ceremony is fine, but make sure it's really small. Like 10% or less of the reception guests. It would be awkward for one person to be saying "wasn't that a beautiful ceremony?" and the other person wasn't invited to that.

Anytime you start treating some guests differently than others (other than the wedding party), you're asking for hurt feelings.