Originally we had planned to have our ceremony in a small town about a half hour from where we live. We like the venue, even though it's a fire hall it is just as nice as most other venues we looked at within our price range, and it fits our color scheme the best. We also like that it is centrally located for most of our guests. Our ceremony is 20 minutes away in a beautiful chapel on the lake shore. It is out of the way but it is really the only option since we are not religious and an outdoor ceremony is out of the question due to the season.
The more weddings we go to on my in-laws' side though, the more I notice that they will often skip the ceremony and only go to the reception. There are situations I can understand that (elderly, poor health, especially in regards to outdoor weddings) but I would be really hurt if someone didn't come to my ceremony, but then didn't bat an eye about eating and drinking on my dime. It also seems that the occurence of this is much higher when the ceremony and reception are in different towns, like ours is, though there is a small percentage that I suspect will skip the ceremony regardless of location.
I find this practice extremely rude and am trying to find a way to avoid it happening. I am not putting any info on my invites that says when the reception will start or when dinner is served, etc. I considered moving the reception closer to the ceremony venue, but then I worry that some people may not come at all, or that the party will wind down early since everyone has a long drive ahead of them. In a petty way, I almost want to have my coordinator ask anyone who shows up early to the reception to leave, but obviously that is not the most tactful way of handling the situation, haha. Is there really anything else I can do about this? Would you be as upset about it as I am, or am I totally over reacting?
