Hi all,

My fiance, now husband, and I got engaged on March 31, 2012. We planned our wedding for May 25, 2012. We found the venue, photographer, florist and DJ. All the deposits were in and everything was set for the big day!

A couple of months after, we found out that we were expecting our first child. We made the decision to get married before the baby was born. Our wedding took place in a church on August 11, 2012 with a small sit down dinner afterwards accompanied by a few family and friends.

Now it’s time to get back to the planning of the large wedding reception that we dreamed of. We both have fairly large families and a lot of friends who were not part of Aug 11th nuptials and who are looking forward to celebrating with us in May. I need advice on how I should word the invitations, whether we have a bridal party, do we have a ceremony and all the other stuff that comes a long with planning a wedding reception.

Looking forward to the responses.

Donna, Wedding Queen, President; Top Wedding Sites

Congratulations on the wedding and new baby.

If the wedding took place within one year then you’ll be hosting a wedding reception. You already had the wedding, so no ceremony is needed. Then no bridal party is needed or any of the traditional stuff (like first dance as husband and wife because, well, I assume you had at least one dance since you got married!). Think about the elements and add the ones hat make sense.

You’ll send wedding reception invitations worded something like this:

Please join us to celebrate
the wedding reception of
Mr. and Mrs. Happy Couple

See more info here: Belated wedding reception invitation wording

Please let me know if you have any specific questions. Note that only wedding guests are expected to send gifts (those you invited to the wedding, not the reception). But, some people don’t seem to know this, so you may receive some gifts anyway.

Have fun and celebrate the marriage!