Wedding invitation wording-not all guests invited to ceramony?

Question

How would you do wordings if only 1/3 of reception guests are invited to ceramony

formal wedding

groom's parents hosting

bride's parents want names on invitation too

If it is a small, private reception, it's make sense not to invite everyone to the ceramony

small private ceramony, I meant, small ceramony-not reception

Answer 1

This is not weired at all! It is what I am doing as well. I got my "how to idea" from Beverly Clark's wedding planning book. She reccomends printing up reception cards for everyone.
IE: Mr. and Mrs. Paul Jones
request the please of your company
at the wedding reception of their daughter
Ann Elizabeth
and
Mr. Fred Peirce
son of Mr and Mrs Ethan Peirce
Sunday, the third of March etc, etc.

And then you would include ceremony invites in those invitations that needed them.

Answer 2

I'm a little confused as well.
As it was taught to me by my very proper mother, the wedding ceremony was actually an event open to all who wished to be there. A wedding is the start of a marriage which is an event which has an impact on the community--the couple is stating to the world that they are a legally joined couple who are no longer to be considered as legally or economically separate.

But you have something else in mind, so let's deal with that. My experience is that people usually invite more people to the reception than to the dinner--the idea being that the social-dance part of the celebration will be bigger than the more expensive, more select dinner part. In the days when that was very common, people who were invited to the dinner would receive a card in the invitation with the dinner information and a response card for the dinner.
You could print your invitations to the reception and then include a card with the information about the ceremony and put that card with the reception invitations for the people who are invited to the ceremony.
So your invitation would say something like:
Mr. and Mrs. BridesParents
and
Mr. and Mrs. GroomsParents
request the pleasure of your company
at the celebration of the wedding of their children
Bride
and
Groom

Reception date, time
and
Reception Place
Reception address

______________
Then on the accompanying card:
The ceremony will be at
Ceremony time
Ceremony Place
address

------
There is no courteous way that you can give the groom's parents public credit for paying for the wedding, unless you do this:


Mr. and Mrs. GroomsParents
request the pleasure of your company
at the celebration of the wedding of their son
Groom
and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. BridesParents
Bride

But I don't think this would be considered polite.
Maybe the Groom's parents could be really nice sports and just let people tell the guests at the reception how generous they are. In the end, it's not about who pays for it, is it? It's about a happy day for a family and for a (I hope) very grateful newly-married couple.

Much happiness to you.

Answer 3

That is a very difficult situation, as people will get the idea that they are invited to both ceremony and reception. Just know from experience, only about 20% of guests ever attend church and reception, so you really shouldn't worry. If I were you, for the people that are going to the ceremony and the reception, I would place a card that has address and time of ceremony at church and directions. On your wedding invitation, I would just put the name of the church (no address) and the time.

For people that are only invited to reception, just include the wedding invitation.

If the groom's parents are hosting, I would have as follows:

Mr. and Mrs. John Jones
and
Mr. and Mrs. Steven Smith
request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their children:

Mary Kate
to
James

on Saturday the 5th of June at

St. Pius Church

leave address out of church
at 4:00 O'clock in the afternoon

Answer 4

Those only invited to reception:
Invitation - Post ceremony celebration
Monica Anne Pearson
and
Jason Frederick Tyler
are pleased to announce
they will be married
on Saturday, July Sixteenth
during a private ceremony
on the Island of Maui
Please join us for a
celebration toast
when we return as
husband and wife
Friday, March 10th
at 8:00 p.m. Marmalade Cafe
Montrose, Michigan

--or--

Reception Invitation
Mr. and Mrs. Allan P. Wrightton
request the pleasure of your company
at the marriage reception of their daughter
Pauline Joanne
and
Mr. Drew Garret Wilson
Saturday, the sixteenth of July
Nineteen Hundred Ninety Eight
at seven o'clock in the evening
St. Paul's Cathedral
675 Main Street
Baltimore, Maryland

invited to both:

Both Sets of Parents issue Invitations
Mr. and Mrs. Alan P. Wright
and Mr. and Mrs. William B. Sklar
request the honor of your presence
at the marriage of their children
Peggy Joann Wright
and
Peter Phillip Sklar
Saturday, the sixteenth of July
Nineteen Hundred Ninety Eight
at five o'clock in the afternoon
St. Mary Cathedral
675 Main Street
Winchester, Maine

Reception to follow
**Reception location**


--------------------
Nothing wrong with a small ceremony and a larger reception. Celebrate your day your way! Ignore all the nay sayers...

Answer 5

I agree--create two separate invitations. One that is for the ceremony would be more formal typical invitation inviting you to the ceremony uniting these two in marriage.

Then a second, more in an announcement style. A dinner reception celebrating the marriage of bride and groom.

That makes it clear exactly what they are invited to attend. It does seem rather odd though if it's not a destination wedding or some reason why they can't attend the ceremony.

As far as how to get everyone's names on it..you can do
Bride and Groom, together with their parents, Mr and Mrs Bride's parents and Mr and Mrs Groom's parents

or as you mentioned the groom's parents are hosting--
Mr and Mrs Groom's parents request the pleasure of your company at the ceremony uniting Bride, daughter of, &
Groom.

Then for the people that are invited to the reception--theirs would say something more like
We request the favor of your company at a dinner reception celebrating the marriage of Bride, daughter of, to Groom, son of. Or parents names first--Mr & Mrs B and Mr & Mrs G request the favor yada yada.

That way everyone gets their names on it--but it doesn't make the reception one look too much like the actual ceremony one.

Answer 6

Have two invites.

Mr. and Mrs. James Doe
and Mr. and Mrs. John Smith
Invite you to the wedding of their children


For the ones of people invited to the reception, not the ceremony:

Mr. and Mrs. James Doe
and Mr. and Mrs. John Smith
Invite you to a reception celebrating the marriage of their children....

If by "formal", you mean "black tie", just put a notation at the bottom of the invitation

That way, the people who are supposed to have the information for the ceremony AND the reception have it. The people invited to the reception only know that from the invite, without having to point out "but not the ceremony".

Answer 7

I actually did this (though I hope that your marriage lasts longer than mine did). My (now ex) fiance and I wanted to get married at dawn with only a few close friends and relatives present. What we did is that the actual Invitations were printed as reception invitations.

"[we] would like to invite you to celebrate the marriage of [names] at [time & place]" Include all relavant details you need to for the reception, like when dinner will be served. Then, for the few people we wanted at the actual wedding, we included just a little slip of paper with the ceremony time. It was printed on that stuff that is semi-transparent but thicker than tissue. That way no one who wasn't invited to the actual wedding even knew about it. I don't think it's rude. This day in age, wedding receptions can include alot of people who are invited for "political" or "business" reasons, or because they would be offended not to be invited. At the same time, many couples want their vows to be intimate, and don't want two thousand people looking time. This way, both the parents and the couple can be satisfied.

Answer 8

Go for separate invitations. I know it will cost more in the long run, but it will be easier to separate the events without offending people. But I think you state something along the lines that the guest is "invited to the reception that is to follow a small intermit ceremony."

or

You can print up invitations to the reception for everyone and have inserts for those invited to the ceremony. They can still look nice on parchment paper.

I don't know, I'm not too up to date on my wedding do's and don'ts.

Answer 9

You send separate invitations.
1 for the ceremony and reception to the select 1/3
1 for the reception only to the rest.

The invite for the ceremony and reception is standard wording "invite the joining of two lives" etc, "ceremony at x time at x church, reception at x time x place".

For the reception only "Susan and David will be joined at a private ceremony at 2 pm. Please help us celebrate our new life together and join us at 6 pm at the Prima Ballroom for a
dinner reception" OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

hope I've helped

Answer 10

I see why this sounds odd to some people... but I totally understand. It's no different than eloping and then having a giant party when you return!

Your best bet, to avoid confusion and hurt feelings, is to make completely seperate invitations. One set for the guests attending both, and one set for those who are only invited to the reception.
The ceremony/reception guest's should read something like:

Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Thomas Russo
request the honour of your presence at the marriage of
Miss (or Ms.) Melissa Ann Brooks
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Brooks
to their son
Mr. William James Russo
on Saturday, the sixth of June
nineteen hundred and ninety-seven
at three o’clock
Saint Anne’s Cathedral
Manchester, Massachusetts


The reception only guests should read something like:
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Thomas Russo
request the honour of your presence at the
wedding reception of
Miss (or Ms.) Melissa Ann Brooks
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Brooks
to their son
Mr. William James Russo
on Saturday, the sixth of June
nineteen hundred and ninety-seven
at eight o’clock
La Dolce Vite Manor
Manchester, Massachusetts