Strange wedding invitation

I thought a reception was the wedding breakfast?

Isn't the wedding breakfast the reception?

Does it specifically say come to the reception at say 1pm, then come for the evening at 7pm? Some people don't have separate evening guests and just have everyone attend the whole day & night, maybe this is the case.

Could you get more info from the bride or another guest?

We called our wedding breakfast a reception...

It's my understanding that the wedding breakfast is often the meal in between the ceremony and the evening buffet? I assume that's what OP meant - I think it's normal for people to extend an invite to the ceremony for people who live local to the ceremony venue but a bit strange if you're expected to travel? Unless you're staying the night before? Oh who knows... this is exactly why we just decided to run away and do it privately hahaha.

What does the invitation actually say?

I was once invited to a wedding where the bride and groom and immediate family were going for a meal inbetween the ceremony and reception. I did think it was a bit odd, but luckily there was a group of about 10 of us going from work so we made plans together to go to a pub and have a meal and drinks. If I could drive I guess I'd have considered going home inbetween... but yeah, it worked out okay.

I reckon the OP's post refers to a church wedding. I've seen couples say anyone is welcome to the church ceremony bit, but otherwise yes, it's just an evening invite. I guess churches can't/ don't limit the numbers so anyone could watch the ceremony, technically. In that case I didn't as like the OP stated, who'd want to dress up and then have to go home again!

I'd say the reception is the 'rest of the day', however some are just evening guests?

I've been to a few weddings like this... Didn't bother me in the slightest! I attended the church then usually a group of us will go of for dinner and drinks before rejoining the party at the appointed time.

ironically these are the weddings I actually enjoyed the most! Ate what I wanted had a good time with a group of people before getting to party away with a bunch of guest who are usually already very fed up/ disappointed with the food/ tired from waiting around!

It's not unheard of - people have limited budgets and/or space at their wedding breakfast venues, so can't invite everyone to that, but still want their evening guests to be able to come and share in the actual wedding, which is after all the whole point of the day.

I have been to two like this. The first one was in the town I lived in, so it was no problem at all to go home for a few hours and come back. The second was the other side of the country, but the church and reception venue were near the middle of the city, so my H and I just went for afternoon tea between the ceremony and evening - it was quite relaxing! The bride and groom at that one specifically said they were having a small, family-only wedding breakfast, so we didn't feel snubbed. I have said elsewhere that I think the logistics of this sort of invite will make a big difference in whether it's ok to ask people to do this or not - if the church/venue are miles from anywhere and there's nowhere else nearby to get food, people will be less happy than if there's a nice pub or something they can go to!

OP, nobody's forcing you to go to the ceremony, in fact they probably think they're being generous in extending the invitation to that part of the day to you! If you only want to go to the evening bit, then do that, but having a break in the middle isn't actually that bad.

In church ceremonies you can invite anyone to the church. In fact anyone can turn up and watch the ceremony. So it's not unheard of with a church wedding.

Hmm, this has got me thinking...

We're having an evening reception and inside our invites it will explicitly say evening and the time (7pm). However OH has made a wedding website and the menu includes 'ceremony' with a link to details about the church and 'reception' which says "We are hosting our wedding reception at (venue) immediately after the ceremony...Our evening reception will begin at 7pm". Is this confusing? If the evening reception is the night do what do you call the drinks reception/wedding breakfast for the day guests? Day reception? I've confused myself... ?

I would say they've got around it being weird by saying 'your welcome' to the ceremony but not that your 'invited' (i.e. you need to come to this bit too).

A friend recently got married and they had loads of evening guests at the ceremony too (big church wedding) and it was lovely

We have the opposite problem, our ceremony room only holds 63 people but our reception room holds 100! lol

It's not weird at all. In days gone by it was the done thing. There are so many more civil ceremonies these days that it doesn't come up as often but it's not weird.

Fr the day guests, call it the wedding breakfast, and the evening part the evening reception.