Wedding "after party"

[bridalBOM]

Bet this has been asked 100 times but can't find answers!

We're getting married in a couple of months. 80 friends and family to ceremony then drinks and buffet at a nearby bar/ restaurant which will be open to the public that night but that we are occupying the bar area of. Fairly casual.

To put it plainly, there are about 25 people whom I would like to party with afterwards but whom we just couldn't justify the cost of paying for food etc. for on top of the 80 that we have ivited to the whole day.

I’m struggling with how to manage this? Do I just mention it to the additional guests and keep it casual like “we’re having a drink afterwards, be great to see you there” or is it acceptable to send a formal invite when I’m not actually offering to pay for anything for them? (apart from the cake, of which there will be enough for all) That feels a bit rude.

Or, is the whole thing unacceptable and I should either have people to the whole thing or not at all?

I believe many people get things the wrong way round. In my mind, you decide WHO you want there first, THEN you work out what you can afford by way of reception/venue etc based on that. If you pick the venue/menu first, you inevitably end up having to make decisions on who to invite/not invite in order to stick to budget.

To us, having the people we wanted there to share our day was more important than having all the trimmings of an uber posh do. We invited everyone for all day, and provided 2 meals - one really nice buffet with several desserts, then a choice of 3 delicious homemade soups and crusty rolls in the evening and another choice of puds.

It seems rude to expect people to travel for only part of a day - to expect them to come to a do and not feed them at all seems even worse to me.