Wedding Ceremony and no Reception. Do we need favors?

I appreciate all your feedback. This thing about getting married I've seen gets tricky. It could even break relationships I've seen... I'll see what I can do.

Does your church have a hall you can use after? If they do, that's a very inexpensive option and you could have an afternoon wedding with some finger foods and cake after. It really doesn't need to be fancy, but you should do something to thank people for attending.

I think that's what I'll do. That sounds really good. The church does have a hall... I don't know if we have to pay for it (hopefully not) and we could get some things from BJs... that's not a bad idea. It would give us time to properly greet our family and friends and talk with them. Would we need seating for a cake and punch?

Probobly but im sure the church has tables and chairs. How many people on your guest list?

Kathryn, I just almost spit my coffee out. Thanks! LOL So funny!

Rosa- I suggest you either put the wedding off until you can afford to provide a small reception, cut the guest list and let everyone know that it's not in your budget to invite everyone "who wants to come", or have a cake and punch reception at a park or something that is affordable to you. Unless they want to help you pay for the wedding no one really has a say in who you do and don't invite.

The church does have chairs and tables. I expect about 80 people since I already sent out invitations saying "no formal reception." We also did not ask for gifts (for this reason) .. no registry. the wedding was set at 2 pm.

Oh man.. this shouldve been brought up before the invitse went out... I am not sure what you do at this point.

I think if my fiance finally changes his mind, we should do cake and punch. IT should not be hard to do. I can always include it in the wedding program.

Yikes. Okay, so no "formal reception." You can have an "informal reception" at the church hall with cake and water/juice/punch and an iPod.

ETA - show him this thread! Seriously.

I'm not sure many peolpe will attend. I wouldnt if it said no reception.

But maybe since you wrote "formal" you could still get away with cake and punch.

See if you can use the church hall for just an hour or two after your ceremony. Serve cake and lemonade, and thank everyone for coming. You can get a big sheet cake that will feed everybody for under $50.

I mean this with all the respect possible, but I'm confused about how this is coming up 2 months before your wedding? I think I understand from your other posts that you already sent invites? If so, you can still (as someone else said) add an "informal" cake reception somehwere nearby. All you need is a community center or church hall.

I agree that even a sheet cake and punch could be less than $100. you should be able to be okay if you add it to the program. it'll be informal and a nice surprise for guests if they thought they wouldn't get anything.

QUESTION: Why is FH so against providing anything for the guests????? Why have guests if thats the case.

Ive actually attended a wedding that had no reception afterwards, a bunch of us guests went out for drinks afterwards and no one threw a hissy fit saying they were offended by the lack of reception. we knew ahead of time and knew what we were getting into so no harm no foul, we went to see them get married anyways. a little gathering afterwards is always nice and can be done cheap, but if you choose to not have a gathering afterwards, as long as guests know ahead of time they have no room to bitch

What time is your wedding?

Our wedding will be at 2 pm. My fiance didn't like the idea of giving out cupcakes because they would cost us $200 for 100 people (which I think will be less) and he told me.. "I have to work two full days for people to have a cupcake." Remember, we did not ask for gifts. Really this whole thing has gotten blown out of proportion day by day. We just wanted to have a small gathering since the beginning and after speaking with our parents, they said we had to invite the whole family. So that, plus friends is about 100 people. He thinks we should just save the money instead. We really want to buy a house as a priority and we have been spending so much money already...

Still, I think like many of you... even though I would be happy to go to a wedding just to celebrate the couple and don't care about the reception, not everyone is that way, and people might be a bit hungry.. there will be people coming from out of town and they might bring gifts. I think the least we can do for them would be giving them cake and lemonade. But... we'll see.. one of us will have to compromise. All your suggestions have been in point. God help us.

I guess the people who still come will be the ones who truly care about us...

Argh, I was with you, Rosa, until that last comment. If YOU really cared about your GUESTS, you should host them properly. Just because they "truly care about you" and may not say anything (to your face) doesn't mean they deserve to be treated rudely.

$200 cost is NOTHING in comparison to normal wedding costs.