Tiered Reception. Yay or Nay?

Cheers and that's pretty much how I feel about my wedding.

Nay nay nay!!!!

I agree that anyone invited to the ceremony should be invited to the reception!

I do not agree with tiered receptions as I feel personally, for my wedding of the guests are invited to the ceremony they should also be invited to the reception. I read a site for wedding etiquette that it is considered rude to invite guests to the ceremony and then not invite them to the reception. On the other hand, it really up to person and their situation as if they want to do that, that's fine as long as they word in such a way that it does not offend the guests.

I think of it more as eloping, and then having a party- perfectly fine.

I always refered to my party as a "reception" for simplicity, but in reality, is really would be just a marriage celebration party. To be a reception you are receiving your guests (yay root words!) after a ceremony. and I strongly believe that to invite more people to join a reception-in-progress is in bad taste. And i'm not even sure how having people leave and return would work without offending people and, like you said, damaging relationships. I would rather not be invited to a wedding at all than be invited to celebrate as a second rate guest.

Yeah I agree. I'm ok with a private ceremony and then a bigger party/reception afterwards because the ceremony is very personal and some people aren't comfortable having a ton of people there but it's not fair to invite people to the ceremony and then not the reception or to try and invite them to the ceremony but not dinner and then have them come back for dancing. How would you feel if that happened to you as a guest? Weddings are already very sensitive areas and I wouldn't want to lose any relationships over a tiered reception.

For us, a wedding is a once in a lifetime opportunity to throw the most awesome celebration ever and have all our friends and family in one place so we wanted to make sure we took advantage of that!

I think there is a BIG difference between having a private ceremony, followed by a large reception and a tiered reception. I think a private ceremony is perfectly fine, as long as only family are included- once friends and extended family are included a "can of worms" has been opened, and people will be hurt.

To me a tiered reception would be inviting some people to the WHOLE reception, for food, drink etc, and some people only for PART of the reception (dancing).I think a truly tiered reception is very rude. It seems like you are telling the second group that they are not special enough to share in your whole celebration, and not important enough to be treated the same as your other guests.

Oh no!!! Nope nope, nay!