My daughter and her fiance, who live in another state, are planning their wedding in her home state where I live. The wedding ceremony will be at our family church where she was baptized and raised. I am planning and coordinating the wedding for them. They have chosen and paid deposit (non-refundable) at a beautiful reception venue. They are paying for more than half the cost of the wedding. They have a guest list of 200 which, after removing the wedding attendants, they divided in half. This seemed fair. With the wedding being in her home town, the bride's family is very large and very close. The reception venue can only accommodate a max of 200. Of her 80 invites I received about 60. I have juggled the list so much, but I am unable to invite a lot of our family members. Not to mention any close friends, co-workers, or our church family. The FOB and I are deeply saddened that we cannot invite these people to the wedding and reception. Nor could we afford the additional cost at the venue location if they could accommodate. Our suggestion: The FOB and I would like to host a Celebration of Marriage Ceremony/Party the next day following the wedding. I wanted to do a Going Away Theme. These friends, co-workers, and family members would only receive invites to this affair. I checked and the cost of this affair is way less than trying to add these people to the reception. We wanted to say thanks for being apart of her life. Is this totally inappropriate? Should we say NO-GIFTS REQUIRED? DESPERATE! PLEASE HELP!
(This post was
edited by TWQadmin on Jul 28, 2008, 2:50 PM)
This would be like saying to them that they are not good enough to invite to the "real" reception. And, we never mention gifts in wedding or reception invitations anyway.
Your friends really shouldn't be invited to your daughter's wedding unless they are also very good friends of hers. The wedding isn't a social event for parents any more.
Some times we will host a second reception in another location, such as a family member's city, for those who couldn't travel for the wedding and reception. But, this isn't the case here.
Second Reception - Next Day
