Invited to shower but not wedding?

Hoping to get your thoughts on this:

We had a very small wedding a few years ago before I started school and because of that we weren't able to have all the guests we wanted to attend.

We're now having a baby and I wasn't sure if it would be OK to invite people who weren't on the wedding list to the shower. Add to it that I've been in school doing 60 to 80 hour weeks for the past 3 years and basically that I see them nowadays mainly on Facebook. BUT on the other hand, I have known them for years, I try to help them when they need stuff, and I am excited to graduate and hopefully resume our closer friendships once I have more time (although I know real life doesn't always work that way). I don't get the sense that anyone is resentful or harboring grudges and a lot of them already have kids and we've been bonding virtually about me joining the parent club.

So I was thinking that if I wanted to invite them but didn't want it to be a gift grab or look like one that we would have a blurb on our registry and maybe the invites as well to say that we'd love to see them and for them to celebrate with us, gifts optional, and that we'd really appreciate hand-me-downs and handmade items rather than anyone having to buy new (but we'd also have registry in case closer people/family wanted to use it).

Would that be a reasonable approach or is it still just alienating people? Would you be offended to get an invite like that?