Inviting More Guests to the Reception

Q: My boyfriend and I are planning our wedding for New Years Eve of this year. Here's our problem, we can only have dinner for 150 guests, but would like to invite more people to the reception after dinner is over. Is this proper etiquette, if so, how do we go about it?

A: I think it's fabulous that you're having your wedding on New Year's Eve and YES...it is totally fine to have 150 guests for dinner and more people joining you for the reception party afterwards. The best way to go about this is to create 2 different types of invitations...one invite to be sent to the 150 that indicates the details of the ceremony and reception, and one type of invitation that specifically indicates that your guests are invited to the "reception only" to celebrate your wedding and to ring in the new year with you.

As long as you are careful about the wording of the invitations, and you ensure that you clearly indicate there is no dinner being served for the guests that are joining you afterwards, you should be just fine. It may be a nice gesture to ask your reception venue to bring out a seafood buffet, or a few fruit, cheese, or veggie platters to ensure that ALL your guests have something to nibble on...you don't want to entirely skip out on feeding the extra guests, as they will be consuming liquor.