Hello Everyone! This is my first post in this forum. I converted to Catholicism 7 years ago. My family and most of my close friends are not Catholic. My fiance was born Catholic, but is at best a lax one, and does not attend Church... most of our family and guests at our wedding will not be Catholic. We are already not having a full Mass, and will have a program... but can y'all think of a way to make everyone feel more comfortable... most of my family has never been in a Catholic Church...

Well not having the mass and just having the ceremony makes it already feel more like a non-catholic ceremony. The church itself should not be scary they are usually very beautiful. My church is niether big nor very ornate but the church we are having it at (which is his) is very large and overwhelming. But even his church isn't scary... but hey I was born and raised Catholic, what do I know, it could be scary.
Maybe if you feel the church is large and scary try attaching the history of the church with the programs or better yet the invites on the back of the directions to the church. This will get them ready for the church and the more you know the less scary anything is.

Good luck but most people are not scared of the building they just hate the hour long wedding and you eliminated that.

My fiance's mom's family is very Catholic and I am not at all. When we went to his uncles wedding in the program they had a note in there about what is "expected" from their guests, catholic or non catholic. It just explained the things that were going on and why the did them and who should and shouldn't take communion (you probably won't have to worry about that if you aren't having a full mass). I have been to other Catholic weddings that were just ceremonies and not mass and they were just like any other wedding I have been to.

Thank you for your responses! I was referring to the fact that compared to their Protestant services, there will still be a lot of responses that may seem scripted and my Dad, a former Catholic, has never been a fan of the Catholic Service. They feel a lot more comfortable with the looser Protestant services they attend...

Thanks for the perspective, believe it or not I have never been to a wedding without a Catholic Mass, so I actually have no idea how it would be different!

A Catholic wedding is completely different without the mass. The only response that people other then you two will have to say is
1. you dad will have to give you away by saying we do (or something like that)
2. There will be the three normal readings plus the responsorial psalm
3. Peace be with you(s)
4. And Amens after the opening and closing prayer.
You can always include the responses to the readings and the psalm in your program.
There is no kneeling for your guests or long prayers. it should be fairly painless