Help - Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties.... who gets invited?

I'm not sure as far at etiquette is concerned. However, my personal experience is that all who are in the party, along with close friends who may not be are invited.

It was always my impression that everyone in the party would be included..I think it would be a bit rude not to invite; if they decline then that's fine, like due to distance or whatever.

Everyone in the party is invited. I am also inviting some close friends who are not in my bridal party..

We're including all of our wedding party for at least part of our bachelor/bachlorette parties, along with maybe a few other friends who aren't in the party. I say "at least part of" the parties because FH's sister (who is a BM) and his cousin (who is a GM) are only 15, and for part of my bachelorette we are going to a club to go dancing, and for part of FHs bachelor party they are going to a bar, so the underage members can't go. But us girls are having a spa party before we go out so FSIL will be included in that and the guys are going bowling before they go out so all of the GM will be there.

I would say everyone is invited. I also think it would be rude to not include someone that is in the wedding party.

The young ones on my wedding guest list was invited. my to BM's my other friends, FH cousins, and the GF's of his friends since the boys had their thing same time... Inviting people not invited to the wedding is not ok!

I'm not sure of ettiquette on this issue. However, if someone is close enough to the couple to be IN the bridal party- why would you NOT invite them? That seems like a no brainer to me. I certainly think all the bridal party should be invted to the respective events!

It's ok to invite other people the bride or groom are clsoe to that aren't in the bridal party. However, it is not okay to invite anyone to the party who is not invited to the wedding.

Yeh I think everyone in the party should be invited, my fiance was saying that everyone in the party he was in was not. I really didnt want my bro to be left out and i didn't know if the best man knew he was in the party since they all haven't gotten together yet. seems like everything is going to work out fine,

Bridal party should definitely be invited!

@Meghan, I agree that you should stick to people invited to the wedding going to the bachelor/bachelorette, but it is a good avenue to include people that you wanted to invite but couldn't because of venue restrictions etc. It doesn't involve any obligations of gifts etc the way a shower does. In my case, both FH and I have larger families that we had to invite, and it didn't leave room for us to invite co-workers that we normally would have included on our guest list. A group of my co-worker friends offered to throw me a bachelorette party for all the co-workers and friends who couldn't come to the wedding but still wanted to celebrate with us. I felt ok about doing this because we made it a pub night and there was no obligation for people to spend a lot of $$ or anything, just an opportunity to hang out and have some drinks. In this case the people not invited were glad to come out, and we all had a great time.

How big is the bridal party? It sounds big! I don't see why your fiance wouldn't want them all to be there unless he wants to do something naughty and doesn't want your brother to be a witness. I'm sure that's not the case, just a little curious!

Me personally I had my husbands family in my wedding, as well as invited some of his cousins to my bachelorette party but they told me they didn't want me to feel weird around them so they opted not to come out of respect for me and wanting me to have a good time. I think that is the best option when it comes to family in my opinion. (not that anything crazy happened or will happen but just so that the person whose party it is can enjoy themselves) In the event that he isn't technically "FRIENDS" with your brother and they don't hang out normally then its probably going to be weird to have someone like that at your "last night out" with his closest friends. But that is just my opinion. Also in some cases not everyone in the bridal party will attend due to age or cost since some parties are expensive per person depending on what is being planned.

@ L. Turtle - its not that he doesn't want him there. They have been friends for 7 years ( since we have been together) and are pretty much like brothers. Although my brother doesn't hang out with the guys all together, he and my fiance do spend time together. They treat eachother like brothersr( my bro is 24). I guess my fiance was asking me y i kept mentioning it and thinking I wanted him there for other reasons which is not the case. He was telling me that the party he went not all the guys went to the party but it was more a trip so everyone prob couldnt go. Im confident in my soon-to-be hubby, I just wanted to make sure my bro would be included since they haven't all gotten together yet and since he doesn't hang out with the group. I know my brother would feel bad if he didnt go and this proved true when he started talking to my fiance about bachelor parties this weekend ( just saying general stuff about bachelor partys)

Continued..

Since my fiance hasn't talked to the best man about the bachelor party, I wanted to make sure that he knew my bro was in the in party. My fiance asked me to give the best man the contact info. This was more of a question bc we both didn't know what the norm was and wanted to see what everyone else was doing

I do agree it could be uncomfortable if family members are in the party and they are not really friends,etc but my fiance doesn't feel that way. My brother will prob tell swearing my fiance to secrecy about whatever craziness he gets himself into LOL

I think all the BM's and GM's should be invited to the bachelor/bachelorette party as long as they are old enough to partake in the activity that is going on. I would be hurt if my brothers weren't invited to the bachelor party since they are in the wedding.

Thanks for all your opinions ladies