Rehearsal Dinner for Lots of Out of Town Guests?

We are also doing, what we're calling, a 'Welcome Party'. Good news is that it does not have to be this fancy gathering with top notch catering, but it should still be a well-planned dinner. We're expecting 130 at ours.

You could totally do BBQ/Pizza/Food Truck catering. It's affordable and simple, and it'll probably taste amazing regardless. Where are you having it? $1,500 might be a stretch. It's comes to $15/person. If you're planning on having dessert or any type of decoration, the price will certainly go up.

Don't invite all the OOT guests. It's nice but there is no requirement to invite all OOT guest, especially having that many people from OOT. If you are dead set on inviting all of them pizza and beer is cheap and acceptable for a rehearsal dinner.

You are not required to host all OOT guests if it will end up like a second reception. If you choose to do so, I would do the cheapest option which is usually BBQ or Italian. If anything, you can host the rehearsal dinner for your bridal party/immediate family (say 6-8) and then open it up to OOT guests for a welcome party with finger foods/apps.

We're just telling people about the Rehearsal Dinner. If you're catering, then you may want to get them to RSVP to you. We're at a restaurant so no need. Depends on how formal you want to be but I don't think an actual invite is necessary.

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Thank you! I'm hoping less people will actually be there the night before, so we will have a larger budget per person. I don't think we will need decor or dessert, especially if the budget isn't there.

If we invited all out of out of town guests to the rehearsal dinner, that would be about 90% of our wedding guests! so we are keeping it to just the wedding party and their SO, parents and other siblings that may not be in the wedding party, and the pastor if he would like to attend as well. We are planning on doing just a little pizza party and drinks for our dinner at our reception venue. We paid extra to have the reception venue starting Friday afternoon to set up so we might as well get the most use of it that we can haha!

I dont think the rehearsal dinner has to be all that extravagant, so BBQ would definitely work too! Im planning on handing out simple invites just to let everyone know times and locations. If you are going to have your out of town guests invited as well, I would have them RSVP just so you know how much food you will need

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Absolutely! Also, not all OOT guests were invited to the Welcome Party. We kind of had a A List when it came to this. These were our closest friends and family, and it still comes to 130 people lol so we had to cut that list a bit. But best of luck!

We are doing a welcome party instead of a rehearsal dinner because most of our guest list is out of town as well. We rented out a restaurant for four hours on the Friday night before our wedding. Not sure how realistic $1500 is though. We are doing food stations, passed appetizers, and two bars for 150 people for $9000 but in an extremely high cost of living area.

People often think appetizers will be less expensive way to feed people. They are not. They are labor intensive and that increases the costs.

There is no obligation to host the OOT's at the rehearsal dinner. I feel the whole point of the RD is to focus on and thank the wedding party for their support, and that gets lost in the shuffle.

You could compromise and cut costs by limiting the guests at the RD to the wedding party and their SO's, siblings and SO's, parents and possibly grandparents. You could then extend an invitation to the OOT's to join you later in the evening for coffee and possibly dessert.

We are having a cook out at his mom's house. We are buying a bunch of meat, chicken maybe even a little bit of fish, sodas and a little bit of alcohol to not get people drunk for the next day lol. Its def a lot affordable than getting a restaurant and stuff. Her house is big so we are probably gonna do it in the backyard. If it rains, the living room is big enough also.

Yeah I wouldn't host all of the OOT guests if I had your budget. It is definitely a nice touch but by no means necessary. I think it would be better to spend a little more pp on the bridal party and immediate family (and SO's) and host a smaller dinner - it doesn't have to be fancy though.

Because potentially 80-90% of our guests are out of town, we opted not to host that type of rehearsal dinner. IF we rehearse it will be midday followed by a lunch for the BP. In the evening, we’re just hosting a Welcome Drinks (and snacks/apps) event for anyone who is in town early and wants to hang, at a casual bar/restaurant near the hotels

Only invite the bridal party and immediate family. No need to invite oot guests.

I'm only having bridal party, parents, siblings (if not in party).

If you aren't doing a "welcome party" but just a rehearsal dinner, there's no need to invite all of your guests or OOT guests.

The only people at my rehearsal dinner will be people who have roles in the wedding and my immediate family.

We had a town of out-of-town guests as well! We stuck to wedding party (and dates/SOs) and family only for rehearsal dinner then hosted a welcome party for all wedding guests afterwards.

We did rent a space for the welcome party and host 3 hours of open bar, so it wasn't super cheap - but cheaper than also paying for food for everyone I guess

Thanks everyone! I thought $1,500 would for sure be enough for a rehearsal dinner so I'm happy I asked. Our wedding party + immediate family comes to 40 people, so we will stick with that and I found a caterer for $850 for 50 people. If we had all the out of town guests, plus all family and wedding party, it would be 160 people. We are inviting 200 to the wedding, so at that point it just feels rude. But I do like the welcome party idea at a local bar after the dinner! Or maybe even some drinks in our hotel room suite for guests to stop by and say hi the night before the wedding after dinner. Super helpful comments!