Wording on Invites...

It really depends what relationship you have with them. I have been invited to a ceremony and reception without the dinner before, and I certainly wasn't offended, because I wasn't that close to the bride and groom and knew they couldn't afford to pay dinner for everyone. Also, I was with a group of friends, so we just went to a restaurant together.

In that case, they just invited us in person, so that's not much help for the wording, but basically they told us to join them for the dance.

I think inviting people to join you for the dance or for dessert would work, since both of those options imply that there's no meal included.

I will ask the 20 to come to the dance and if some ask to come to ceremony then I will tell them it’s ok.

Thank you ladies. All your words pretty much summed up how I was feeling. Pretty hard to do what I was wanting to do.
Just trying to make everyone happy but I don’t think it’s going to happen.
Thanks again.

I think logistics would be difficult as other Brides have mentioned.

I would probably only invite them to the reception at the end instead of to the ceremony as I think it may be awkward to have them at both. At the ceremony, they may speak with people who are invited to the dinner portion and then be confused to why they were not invited to that portion.

It would be a tricky situation either way, and you do risk them walking in mid-way to dinner, or being offended, but I wouldn't invite them to both and not the dinner.

If this were the case, I would invite them only to the reception and state the reception as a "dance" or only the ceremony.

If you can’t afford to have everyone for a dinner, I would suggest having an appetizer or dessert reception instead. I don’t think there’s a nice way to invite people to some parts of the celebration but not all of it.

View quoted message It's doable that's for sure. You could give those extra 20 people a different invitation that only mentions the ceremony and the reception. You'll risk them arriving and expecting food unless you clearly state no meal on the invitation. Or you could just not invite them to the ceremony at all and just the reception. Either way you will run the risk of them being either offended or upset about either not being invited to the dinner or not being invited to the ceremony and dinner. It's a tricky situation if you ask me.

Correct. Is it too much?

View quoted message And to clarify again..you only want to invite those extra 20 to just the ceremony and reception, not the dinner?

Sorry I was writing in a hurry and didn’t reread it.
Ceremony then dinner and then reception.

I am also a little confused with your timeline. Let's see if I get this.. your having the ceremony then after a sit-down dinner and reception? Or is the sit-down dinner the reception? Sorry I just am really having a hard time understanding your actually time line of the day, maybe you can clearify it for me? My guess: Ceremony, reception, sit-down dinner.

Ceremony is before. Sorry.

Your ceremony is after your reception? Or your ceremony is before your reception? The way you worded things is a little confusing.