Cocktail hour

Ho my God thank you soo much for your advice! I think it's ok to have my reception with family and close friends. Like you said, if it's well explain there shouldn't be a problem

Hi,Yes I'm having my wedding at a church and my reception at a different place. My mom's plan was to do the cocktail at the basement of the church

Hi bride to be Id say as long as everyone knows what they are invited to and why you shouldn't have a problem I.e. We'd be honoured if you were there as we share our love & commitment in front of you / our community so please join us in witnessing our ceremony If someone asks about the reception- space is limited to your family and friends and the reception invite has been extended for our private reception I think you can easily offer everyone a drink and small nibbles - think of easy snacks crackers , cheese ,veggies and dip
We had a welcome drink before the ceremony so everyone had a beverage MADD zero alcohol champagne ,Sparkling wine cocktail and beer

I was just thinking ..... Where you are having your ceremony is it in a different place than the reception? (Some churches have party rooms for example) If so, maybe they have a room where you can have food and refreshments laid out at the ceremony space for the additional guests. This way they wouldn't go to the reception space and you wouldn't have all that logistical confusion.

Hi melissa!Yes we'll have a receiving line And I agree with you, doing the cocktail before could turn into a logistics nightmare!

This is tricky- because I know in my circle we could not have some people attend the ceremony and not the reception (we are doing things the total reverse for this reason!). It might hurt some feelings- but I do understand your reasoning, because it sounds like a huge group.

I like the other ladies' ideas of handing out favours to you guests, or having refreshments available before the ceremony. Much more than that really will get confising for guests and be a logistical nightmare for you! Will you be having a receving line outside of the church? That might be nice, just to make sure you can personally thank all of your guests!

Hi most of all the family members will be there, but I can't invite all the people from my church and all my parents friends . The only event we are having before the wedding is the bridal shower

I agree with Lisa on this!

In my family it wouldn't go over well! They would feel it's a slap in the face and they weren't good enough to come to the reception. Sad but true. Can you not have an engagement party to openly celebrate with everyone? People may not feel as left out. Just a thought. Good luck!

Yeah I was thinking about that too, I think I'll just give some small refreshments and favors to my guests

Yes! I like the idea of giving favors at the ceremony. Good idea !! Thx a lot

Oh EXCELLENT idea Sam!!! Pre-ceremony cocktail hour sounds like a fantastic idea! Though you won't be able to mingle much, as most people don't want everyone (including your FH) to see your dress before. But your family could host for you

That sounds challenging. Would you be doing a cocktail hour after the ceremony as well? Does your mom want you to be at the cocktail hour before the ceremony? That would be nice for your guests but the wedding party would probably be busy getting ready so they wouldn't be able to attend.

Maybe you could just provide some light refreshments before the ceremony (like lemonade) but not need to do a full cocktail hour? I also like Valerie's idea of doing a small favor or token to thank them for coming to the ceremony.

Good luck!

Ya... I think as nice as it would be that I personally would just skip having a cocktail hour with everyone. I just don't think there's a way to do it that won't be obvious

Maybe you could have some sort of small favor to give all the people at the ceremony as a thank you for coming.

Yes that's what I thought.... it's confusing

Hmmm that's tricky... it would be really nice to thank people for coming by having the cocktail hour with everyone, but it would probably be confusing to put on the invitation, and the people that aren't invited will definitely notice the grand exitus when the 170 people that are invited all leave to head to the reception. And that could lead to some hurt feelings (even though people understand you can't invite them all, it still stings when it is obvious)