Opening gifts at rehearsal dinner

You don't need to open gifts at the RD. It's not a shower, and people that didn't ring a gift might feel badly.

All the weddings I've been in, everyone just brings the gifts and opens them back home/in the hotel.

They typically open them on their own time after dinner is over, at home/hotel.

Here because that’s a great question I hadn’t even thought of!

I've only received my bridal party gift at a rehearsal dinner once (every other time it's been the morning of the wedding, which is how I also did it), and us bridesmaids did open them there on the spot. The rehearsal dinner was fairly large (40ish guests), in a large winery space, so the bride just pulled us over to a table in the corner away from the other guests. Not awkward and fun to open them in front of the bride and thank her then and there.

Also, if gifts are given at the rehearsal dinner, they are less likely to get lost as they would in the chaos of the wedding day because everyone is going back to their homes or a hotel.

Our rehearsal dinner will have a seating chart (due to the way the restaurant is) and so I'm just planning on having them at each person's seat (my MIL is taking care of this for me). If they open right away, cool, if they wait, cool, no big deal either way.

We gave out gifts at the rehearsal dinner. It was a small group and the bridal party opened their gifts in front of everyone. No feelings were hurt, we're all adults and know why the gifts were given. Every wedding I was a part of did it this way.