How big is your rehearsal dinner?

@MichiganBride104 That made me feel much better! Jeez, where are you getting your food from? Are you also paying for drinks?

It ended up about 22 but we invited 30 I think,

The only family required is immediate. Not even grandparents, aunts, uncles MUST be included (though, understandably, many choose to!). That might be where you can cut, if you can/want to.

$700 isn't bad though! Ours was about 1k but that included hosted alcohol for the whole event.

Totally understand!! I was hoping for about 30 & I'm up to about 45!! We invited parents, bridal party & So's, readers, FG & her family, & officiant with quest. Plus I have a few OOT close friends coming in that I really wanted to invite. Got a pretty good deal for dinner & now I'm just hoping they all don't drink too much!! Lol!! Good luck

Yeah, ours would be GIANT if we invited OOT guests and +1's of all our bridal parties, so we're keeping it to parents, siblings, and bridal parties ONLY. It's still going to be like 25 people.

Because I am having a destination wedding, everyone invited to the wedding itself is also invited to the "welcome dinner." I am figuring on about 75 guests at $25/pp so total probably just under $2000. We will have an actual rehearsal with the bridal party right before the welcome dinner.

You invite the people who are in the wedding, their sig others, your parents and your minister/readers. Inviting all your OOT guests makes it another wedding; not necessary at all. Why are you inviting them?

Another great argument for having a small bridal party. It sounds petty, but it adds up.

We will have about 25 people.

Ours is up to 53

ETA: This # includes our parents, brothers/sisters, grandparents, bridal party and their s/o's

I am inviting a few of my OOT guests because I want to! I know it isn't required but they are a few good friends coming in that would have nothing to do & I would love extra time with them.

I never said you had to invite them but I prefer too.

We are in the mid 30s. Cost about $1100. We have BP, SOs, and family. The extra family is mine and I got bitched at by FMIL bc I wanted to invite them. I offered to pay for the extra cost but I got bitched at for that too. I can't win.

I just did a quick count. Just parents, grandparents, siblings, bridal party +1,flower girls family and jr bridesmaid girl's parents is 39!!! Wow that's bigger than I thought!

Our tentative count is 23. That's our parents, grandmothers, bridal party & s/o, minister, and step son.

Ours is around 50 too

We have extra parents due to divorces and remarriages. And I have lots of siblings, so them and their spouses. FH's (grown) kids and their SO's. And the officiant and her husband. It just adds up fast when you're in a big family. Pretty much any family gathering is 24 people minimum.

I made this suggestion on another thread, but it seems applicable to your situation as well. Maybe have the rehearsal dinner just wedding party and parents and then have a "social hour" afterwards for extended family. You'd pay for the meal for the dinner (obviously) but then during the social hour people would be responsible for paying for their own drinks or appetizers that they want to snack on.

Ours is 31 people (29 if we don't count FH and I )

Ours in the wedding party, parents, SOs, officiant, and about 10 OOT guests... because they are close family we never get to see, I wanted to spend some more time with them.

We had 40 at our rehearsal dinner - you're not crazy. It's a wonderful gesture to invite the OOT guests to join you (especially all the way from Japan!).

It is what it is, and you're right - maybe a few of them won't come - but if they do - consider yourself loved!!!

Ours is 22. Only immediate family and bridal party.

We made the rule of bridal party and immediately family only ... for us, the rehearsal dinner is a thank you for attending the rehearsal ... and all our aunts, uncles, grandparents, and out of town guests are not attending the rehearsal. Therefore, they won't be at the rehearsal dinner. Our total is 30 which includes our bridal party, their spouses, their kids (who I don't think are actually going but we figured we should invite), our parents, and our officiant (who we know won't attend either).

15-18 people will attend our rehearsal lunch...but we're having a small wedding (around 65 people)...