Can I invite guests only to the wedding reception?
Many couples who start to plan their wedding quickly come to realize that they want to have an intimate reception with just the closest friends and family members but they would still like to have a big party afterward at the reception. In this case, a natural question comes up: can you invite people only to your wedding reception and not the ceremony? The answer is “yes, you absolutely can!”. According to the traditional etiquette, it is absolutely okay to invite a small number of guests to the wedding ceremony and have more guests attend the reception. On the other hand, everyone who’s present at the ceremony should also be invited to the reception.
Reception only wedding invitation wording
Once you have your two wedding guest lists ready, you can start coming up with the wording of your wedding reception invitations. Here, you can choose to either go with two separate kinds of invitations, one for people who are only invited to the reception and another for those who are invited to both the ceremony and the reception, or you can choose to send the save reception invitation to all the guests and simply include an additional insert with a ceremony invitation in the envelopes who will go out to people who are invited to the ceremony. As for the wording, don’t ask people to come and witness your marriage. Instead, explicitly state that they are invited to a reception in celebration of the marriage following a small ceremony to avoid any confusion.
When to host a wedding ceremony?
If you are only inviting a few guests to the wedding ceremony and expect the rest to join you later at the reception, it is a good idea to have the ceremony earlier in the day. This way you and your guests will have plenty of time to celebrate privately with champagne, take pictures and enjoy the most important day of your life without worrying about being late for the reception or having your reception guests arrive early. But once it’s time for the reception to begin, it is crucial that you take time to greet all of your reception guests and mingle with them so they are not left feeling unwelcome.
Can you have the wedding ceremony and reception on different days?
If you want to have a little more breathing room on your big day and a little more time to enjoy your wedding, it can be a great idea to have your wedding ceremony and reception on different days that are several days, weeks or even months apart! All of this depends on your wishes, financial situation and schedule, but having the reception and ceremony on different days is the perfect opportunity to enjoy wearing your wedding dress one more time!