[Magdalen] Wedding Advice

[Rick Mashburn]

As y'all know, Alex and I were married in a civil ceremony in Santa Fe in
May. We're planning our church service for November. Currently, the liturgy
that is approved calls the service the "Celebration of a Lifelong Covenant"
but I'm hoping it can be the "Blessing of a Civil Marriage" by the time the
bulletins are printed. We've requested permission from the Bishop to call
it that. We are really looking forward to this opportunity with our friends
and families since it was just the two of us in May. Alex's family and many
of his friends will be here from Mexico.

Here's my question: Since this is the first same-sex service at St. Paul's,
we'd like to make the service open to anyone in the parish who would like
to attend. A reception and dinner will follow in the parish hall but that
will be a private event. How do we handle that from an announcement/wedding
invitation standpoint. While we'd love to have everyone join us for dinner,
we can't afford that. I know we can have the reception information printed
on the invitation to those who get one. But, how do we handle the
announcement to the parish? One suggestion I got was to include an
invitation to the service in the previous week's bulletin followed by, "A
private reception will follow in the Parish Hall." I'm not sure that feels
right. It will be a little awkward because most people who attend will have
to walk past the parish hall on the way to the parking lot. If we were
holding the reception in a different location, I wouldn't be as concerned.

Any advice on how this has been handled in your parish?

Peace, Rick
definitely looking forward to 11/14/15