Faux Pas or Nah: Not inviting all out-of-town guests to your rehearsal dinner?

I find some of these responses funny. 100% of our guest list was out of town so 100% got invited to the RD. It wasn't a "second reception" it was just a RD...

Just shows how things that are normal in some areas/circles/etc are so foreign to others.

Nah. If we invited all out of town guests to the rehearsal we would have had more than half our guests at there. I've been to plenty of out of town weddings and never been invited to the rehearsal.

I'm not sure why anyone outside of the wedding party, immediate family, and officiant would need to be at the rehearsal dinner. Maybe I just don't know the background on what the rehearsal dinner is for.
This is why we are skipping the RD all together and just having everyone join us at the welcome party.

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Thanks Maggie! We were really worried about cost but are now looking forward to it and love that we can spend more time with all the guests. We invited 160 guests and expect to have 100 at the welcome dinner as some guests are getting in until later on Friday night.

Nope. Our guests wouldn't even be coming until the day of the wedding. Also, I wouldn't expect my FMIL (who is paying for the meal) to cover any out-of-town guests who may/may not be there.

Nah

We aren't even having one, but a significant portion of my guestlist is out-of-towners and there are plenty of things to see and do in the area, so we don;t feel the need to host any pre-wedding events.

For me, if you are hosting a rehearsal dinner or welcome event, you should invite everyone in the wedding, family members, and any out of town guests. That being said, I don't think a rehearsal or welcome event is a requirement. That's just my opinion though.

Definitely not!

Our wedding is at least all of our guests, so I'm not sure if that really counts as "out-of-town" or not, but there's no way I'd invite them all to a rehearsal. I've heard of people doing a welcoming party maybe for family flying in, but this isn't something I see us doing.

Nah. We were out of town guests at a wedding this past September and were invited to the rehearsal dinner. The couple/family was really pushy to us that we needed to go. It was really inconvenient and we ended up not going because we drove up that day (9 hour drive) and didn't want to spend time getting ready and then socializing. As an out of town guest with no role in the wedding, I would probably pass on it anyway. I would rather decompress.

Nah. We have plenty of out of towners who aren’t coming in until day of

Nah. I don't think unless they are part of the bridal party that you have to.

It's a nice gesture. If my FILs weren't hosting it, I would want to invite my friends that are traveling from out of town. But I think people will understand if they're not invited. Now, not inviting out of town family... I think is a separate issue haha, but that's just my opinion

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Yikes, that's a lot of out of towners. Are you going to be holding any sort of welcome party/cocktail hour or no, Nicole?

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That's one way to avoid the problem, Angerra! I think rehearsal dinners, back in the day, served as a form of thank you to guests who traveled. They were fed, they got to hang out, that sort of thing before the wedding the next day.

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Nope! not in the budget unfortunately. We'll be sure to check in and say hello to all of our guests at the reception cocktail hour/wedding reception.

We are just doing the wedding party and our parents.

Nah, i think the tradition is out of date. The majority of my guests will be out of towners and we can't possible invite all of them to the rehearsal.

I think no. I understand that traditionally that is the way it was done, but most of my guests would be out of town, so it would basically be like a pre-ceremony reception if I invited all of the OOT people! Plus, then it would be rude not to invite the in-town guests. I say be reasonable - the cost of a wedding is a lot more than it used to be!

Oh this was an argument with my FMIL for sure. First of all not everyone from out of town are invited to the wedding to begin with. My FH and I didn't want a huge wedding, so a rehearsal dinner was out of the question for us. We hate being the center of attention and having another thing for us to do and pay for was out of the question for us.

I don't think the rehearsal dinner is necessary and to tell the truth most of my side wouldn't want to come to something like that anyway. They'd rather do their own thing.

If you can afford it I would say invite the out of towners especially if they are extended family. But if budget is tight I think it is also totally acceptable to keep the rehearsal dinner small.