Wedding Did you...

[Rock Your Socks]

or have any of you invited your marriage celebrant, officiant, minister or the like to your wedding reception or are any of you considering it?

Anyone out there who is married and invited their officiant or priest etc to their recpection or anyone thinking of doing this?

Is there a general rule in these situations or is it not really a done thing????

TIA

 

[CNOS128]

We''re going to set aside a place for him and verbally invite him to stay for cocktails/dinner, but not send him an official invitation.

In my brief internet research I''ve found a lot of people do invite the officiant, especially if they have some sort of connection to the person before the day of the wedding (ours is a family friend). But in my opinion, it''s not necessary to invite your officiant if he/she is a total stranger.

 

[Nocturnius]

I have always heard it is customary and polite to invite your officiant to your reception.

Ours was informally invited, but had another wedding to officiate after ours and couldn''t stay.

 

[Munchkin]

It is my understanding that it is customary to invite the officiant. We sent formal invites to both priests. The one who is a good friend of ours came to both the rehearsal dinner and the reception. Our other priest was the pastor of the church we were married at and is closer to my parents that to us. He declined the reception invite but came to the rehearsal dinner. He told my parents that his policy is not to attend any receptions so that he doesn''t end up ''picking and choosing.''

 

[neatfreak]

I certainly think it''s polite to invite them. But I think for the most part unless they are personal friends they decline.

 

[julesbeth]

I''m with neatfreak - we invited him, but he declined

 

[Sabine]

We didn''t think of it until last minute, so we just extended a verbal invite at the rehearsal, and our priest did end up coming to the reception!

 

[Elmorton]

Our officiant was a friend, so yes. He was actually our Plan B - we certainly would have extended the invitation to the judge we initially asked because she is a friend of the family, also.

I believe it''s customary to do this anyway - also, at religious weddings I''ve attended, usually the priest/pastor/spiritual leader says a prayer before the meal (after the toasts).

 

[bee*]

It''s always done in Ireland and I haven''t been to a wedding yet where the priest didn''t attend the dinner. I''m hoping ours will be able to attend also.

 

[kittybean]

We''re planning to send an invitation to our priest and to the deacon who''s doing our marriage prep with us. At weddings in my family, the priest is always invited and given a place of honor at a family table.

 

[Rock Your Socks]

Wow, sounds like almost 100% of brides out their do invite their officiant etc. Thanks for the advice, i pretty much know now that i need to invite my celebrant! Thanks for everyone''s input and opinion. Much appreciated.

RYS

 

[Italiahaircolor]

We invited ours...and he did our blessing. As a matter of fact, he joined us for our rehearsal dinner too.

 

[debzy103]

I''m inviting my rabbi and cantor.