Avg. Cost of Wedding Welcome Party

I definitely wouldn't. That's a lot of money that could be saved for the actual day. That's extra food or drinks.

Oh, just noticed that your wedding is the day before mine!

ETA: always plan as if EVERYONE will attend. It's the only safe way to budget, if you plan on throwing this party.

Thanks!! Yeah we have a lot of guests traveling for the wedding some even traveling from out of the country which is why I'm considering it. It's expensive but trying to gauge Just how expensive it is.

Oh ok, I see. What would be your plan for food?

I'd skip it honestly. You do have to plan for almost everyone (which may be wasteful) but I can't imagine that even for 200 guests it would be less than 4000.00......

That's a lot. Plus the time you'll be invested when you're the most time crunched.

A lot of family and close friends checked into our hotel The night before our wedding. We told everyone we would be in the bar from 7/8pm (I can't quite remember) if anyone wanted to join us for a casual drink. The venue/ hotel through in finger food for free for us, we had expected to pay for it but they threw it in on the house. We bought everyone a few rounds of drinks. I'm not sure how much it cost though as it was added to our drinks bill for the next day. There was probably about 30/40 people there.

We wanted to have a welcome party too since most of our guests are OOT but we didn't want to spend the money. So we're just going to spread the word that the night before we're all be having drinks here____ at this time. That way people can come if they want to and buy a drink but there's no cost to us

@Colleen that was what we did and as we got closer to the wedding we said we knew could buy a few rounds for those who would be possiblely there.also it just happened to be the hotel bar for convience.

We're planning on doing something similar to @Maria and @Colleen. We also have a guest list of 250 and didn't want the rehearsal dinner to turn into another reception.

These are good ideas. Maybe we make it informal and just do one hour of beer and wine.

We had 100 people and hosted a welcome party. It was around $5000 for dinner and open bar if I'm remembering correctly. Our wedding was a destination wedding around the holidays so we went all out with a welcome dinner and farewell brunch. Had it been local, we may not have.

For 250, double that (though I'm sure you could do it cheaper), so if it's in the budget, knock yourself out, but you certainly don't have to. Is it a destination wedding?

It's sort of a destination. We're getting married in Tampa (near our parents) we're in D.C. But we have guests travelling from all over!

Can you afford to host one? I wouldn't do it unless I can 100% afford it. Don't charge it or expect someone else to pay for it. It's an extra and totally unnecessary.

I was asking about cost to see if we could afford it. Maybe we'll just do a BBQ somewhere.

We are having a welcome at the hotel the day before the wedding from 2-4pm. We will have light snacks and drinks. This is mainly for OOT guests who will be checking in to the hotel who may want to stop by and say hello. Cost? Room rental is $160 plus food/drink. About $700.

We had a lot of guests traveling as well but didn't do a welcome party. Its nice to do but completely unnecessary. I would keep it casual. And if most guests are staying at the same hotel, hosting something at the hotel or very close to it is best.

Even as a guest, when I've traveled to others weddings, it can be more of a hassle to try to make it there for another dinner party. I usually just want to check in to the hotel, get a quick bite and crash.