Separate invitations for ceremony and reception

From what I've read on here, you're not alone in that thought. I think if you're having a ceremony now and a reception later on when money is better then it's ok but I wouldn't want to be invited to only the reception. I would feel like an after thought

You're definitely right, people should be invited to both. The one exception I've seen done well is a VERY private ceremony- like 10 people or less- then a big celebration later on.

You can do this IF the ceremony is immediate family only.

You can do this, but it isn't preferred. It's the other way around (all to the wedding, a few to the reception) that is considered super rude. I agree with AL, there has to be a clear, defining line on how you separate the people if you're going to do this.

Overall though, I don't recommend it.

You can't do a medium sized ceremony and then invite more to the reception, it looks gift grabby and you are right in your thinking of "oh hey, I want you to party with me and celebrate but I don't like you enough to have you there when we say our vows". The one exception is if you do immediate family only (parents, grandparents, siblings). Keep it a very small ceremony. But the minute you invite friends or aunts/uncles to the ceremony/expand it out, it becomes rude.

I think this is if fine as long as the ceremony is truly intimate (small, immediate family only) and the reception is properly hosted. In this scenario, if you are paying for their meal, drinks, and entertainment (for the reception) I don't understand how someone could view that as greedy/gift grabby. ETA: clarity

Thank you ladies, I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought this seemed rude. My fmil said she's went to several weddings like this and all I could think was "that's so rude". We were planning on doing a DW in Hawaii (it is cheaper to do a wedding with an all inclusive all 4 islands/ 11 day honeymoon there than just a wedding and reception with no honeymoon here around us). We had so many people saying they wanted to come and plus my FH is the first of 3 boys to get married so we changed it to be around here. When we were doing Hawaii we were just gonna tell people "you are more than welcome to come if you want but you have to pay your own way". I feel a lot of them were just saying they wanted to come because they thought "free vacation". Now that we decided to stay up here we are having trouble with the venue so that's why she suggested that (she also suggested a dry wedding and my FH said Hell no! He'd do beer and wine with no liquor but absolutely won't do a dry wedding, which I agreed with).

Sorry for the ramble lol I'm just glad I'm not the only one who thinks this is rude