Reception without Ceremony

No wedding party necessary! Your reception be simple (a casual catered BBQ) or very wedding like (you wear wedding attire, first dances, cake cutting ceremony). Totally up to you! What are you guys thinking? For how many guests?

View Quoted Comment Honestly we haven't put much thought into what we want it to look like and we only have a guestimate of 150 guests.

A wedding party isn’t necessary even for a typical ceremony. The reception is up to you. You can do a full reception with a first dance, cake cutting, the whole deal, or just a casual backyard party.

Just put "invited to the reception of names" instead of wedding on the invite is all I'd change if that. You can do whatever

No wedding party. Otherwise, just a reception to celebrate the marriage of ____.

We are having a black tie wedding reception approximately 6 months after our private ceremony. Our wedding party is out of state, so they will not attend both events. We will have about 250 guests. It'll be dinner, dancing, cake cutting, photo booth.... you name it. Our wedding announcements and reception invitation will be mailed late January with a wedding photo on the back. Our DW is at Christmas. Best of luck!!

Just make sure your invites are clear that it's only the reception! I was invited to a wedding a few years ago and it wasn't until that day that I realized it was only the reception. And was kind of hurt to be honest. I'd known the bride since she was 2yo. That being said, we're having our ceremony with parents and siblings only, two weeks and a month before our receptions (different states for our families). On the invites, I put "We're married!" and used "wedding reception" instead of celebration. I didn't want anyone to be confused and hurt like I'd been. If the invite I'd received had been clearer, I wouldn't have been hurt.

Here's the invite from our local reception, which had 50/s/60's theme. My only wish is that we put "Wedding Reception" at the top because one or two couples thought it was just a fun party and didn't realize it was because we were married (probably because of the fun "Twilight Zone" type of wording my hubby wanted on the front of the card).

front of invite

back of invite