How do we invite friends to the evening reception without making them feel second-best?

My partner asked why my university friend was on the evening list when we went to her whole wedding last year. I said, "We only have sixty dinner places," which didn't explain why I'd chosen hers.

The venue has quoted for sixty people at dinner and one hundred at the later party. We plan to serve supper at nine. Invitations haven't gone out, and we're trying to decide whether forty evening invitations would be a warm way to include more people or an uncomfortable division.

Some friends live nearby. Others would travel more than an hour for a party starting at 7:30. I don't want an invitation that lets them assume they're coming to the ceremony and meal, then reveals the start time later.

Can we make this work honestly, accepting that some people won't want to come? And how do I review the actual names without treating last year's invitations as debts to repay?