Reception only invitation wording?

Mine says...

With Great Joy, we would like to announce that Matt & Jacqueline were married in a private ceremony. Please Join us for a reception of BBQ, music & love.

We also are hosting ourselves, so we kept all family names off except our own.

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I really like that. Is the event truly a reception or more like a party? My husband and I are debating what we want to do (a party or a true reception. What is your timeline for the reception?

View Quoted Comment Prepare for a novel haha:
It’s really just a party. But we are serving cake. And we are having a live band. But not a wedding band, just a local cool band that people can chill and listen to.

Party starts at 4:00. I don’t expect everyone to show up on time since theres no ceremony. So I’m not serving dinner until 5:30 so everyone has a chance to arrive. Between 4-5:30, the band will be playing and we’re serving single-serving charcuterie boards (diy) as appetizers. The bar is just a couple of canoes filled with ice and beer/wine. Serve yourself
For dinner we have a local barbecue restaurant catering. Pulled pork, brisket, chicken, and traditional barbecue sides. Super casual. We are doing a cake cutting after dinner, but we’re really using it as an opportunity to thank our guests for coming. At that point we’re going to say a few words, thank everybody etc. etc.
The band is going to be there from 4 until 10, but then we also have speakers set up where we can just plug in a phone and party beyond 10 PM (private location so we expect it to go late)
I’ve made some lawn games like giant Jenga and Yatzee and corn hole. But we really just expect everybody to relax, listen to music. And have a good time. We are going to designate a patio near where the band is set up as a “dance floor,” but I really don’t expect us to have dancing like you would a traditional wedding. And as of right now my state doesn’t allow dancing anyway.
I kept the invitations rather simple using just the wording above. But I put more information on our wedding website. So if people are curious what to wear or how casual is casual, all of that information is on our website.

View Quoted Comment If you have any interest in checking out the website for inspo it’s
CelebrateInTheWoods.com

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I love it! This is the type of vibe my husband wants - a laid back BBQ or crawfish boil -- nothing super fancy. We're calling our event as a "watch party" so those who did not attend our microwedding will have a chance to watch our wedding video. I was just curious as to how we handle music (if any), but I like the live band idea. Thank you for sharing! You've given me some good ideas.

View Quoted Comment Happy to help! And I LOVE the watch party idea. What if you set up a projector and just had your video on loop up against a back drop.


If you’re not concerned about dancing being a big center piece (I’m not either) than a chillLocal band (who are all desperate for work right now) or even just an ipod with a couple speakers and a great playlist.