Open ceremony but private reception?

Your other choice is to elope.

Unless this is a situation where the ceremony is open to all church members, it's rude to invite people to the ceremony and not the reception. For one thing, the reception is to thank guests for attending and for another, inviting some people to the reception and not others creates tiers of guests--only some of them get food, cake etc while the rest have to go home.

Do not do this. At all. It's a terrible idea. How would you feel if you were invited to someone's wedding and knew you didn't make it onto the reception list? I sure as heck wouldn't even show up to your ceremony if that were me. Cut costs elsewhere and have and invite the amount of people to both that you can afford to feed and host. You don't need to have an "open ceremony" which I've also never heard of before. I think you'll have a bigger headache this way than by just cutting the list down or eloping.

This is a bad idea....

Bad idea. Invite the number of people you can afford to host properly to both ceremony and reception.

There is only one situation where this isn't rude, and Kahlcara nailed it; that sounds like what you're thinking about doing. That is fairly common for couples who are involved with their church or temple community.

Typically, they are alerted via the bulletin or pulpit announcement, there is cake and punch/coffee for a little while afterwards, and your immediate family and friends move to the reception.

You have plenty of choices; many people with church 'families' don't invite them. (While it's lovely to think that everyone who knows us is close enough to want to come, it's rarely the case....).

Or elope with a small group that you can afford.

This is realllllly rude and an insult to your guests. The reception is to "recieve" and thank yours guests, all of your guests.

This is not a tiered reception; it's completely normal IN A CHURCH COMMUNITY, which is a major factor that the comments are not taking into account.

Just invite who you can afford to invite to both. Even if that means that some people don't make the cut. People understand that weddings are expensive and you can't always invite everyone you want to. People don't need the consolation prize of getting dressed up, and buying you a gift, to go watch a 20 min ceremony and then turn around and go home. I know that I would just skip it. And honestly, if I'm being invited to just the ceremony then I know that I'm not really that close to the couple to begin with so it's no great loss to sit this one out. (and I'm wondering why they felt obligated to invite me to begin with)

@Celia, she said "open church ceremony" but didnt clearly indicate whether or not everyone (with the exception of church members) would be invited to the ceremony. @OP, if you only plan on only excluding church members this plan is fine. Otherwise, it is rude.

If this is an open ceremony for the church community then they just put it in the bulletin and call it a day. The fact that op is wondering how to do this and that the people that she ran this by have never heard of it tells me that this isn't a church community thing and it's not normal in her area. Op hasn't clarified.

At my house of worship, they put out a calendar with weddings and other events. All members are welcome. Then it is fine to have the ceremony at the church, and later have a dinner whatever with a small group. That is fine. But I think the problem may be that OP wants to invite non-members to the religious ceremony. The minute you start sending out invites, I think you need a reception. JMO

I have heard of the open church ceremony and that's completely normal. I would only send invites to those invited to the reception and just mention there will be an open ceremony at the church. However, if your intention is actually to have a tiered wedding, then my suggestion is to elope or have your wedding be for close family only.

I would have the "open church ceremony" with a light refreshments reception to follow. Then you could have a intimate nice dinner with intermediate family and close friends.

You could do an open ceremony with a reception of cake and punch for everyone who attends. It is rude to invite everyone to the ceremony and only host a proper reception for half of them.

Very very rude...

If someone shows up to your wedding knowing they aren't invited to the reception, they SHOULD go to the reception because clearly they care about you....

Ugh just don't do it. Or elope.

You can't send an invite to someone NOT invited to the reception. That's saying "HEY spend your Saturday watching me get married but i won't pay for your meal afterwards..."

That's ridiculous. Don't do that. You can have a cake and punch reception or elope.

Noooooo!

I wouldn't do it. Lower your guest list or push the date further to save up.