Rehearsal Dinner guest list is getting ridiculous

We're limiting our RD to immediate family (parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters) and their significant others if they have one, the BP and their significant others, and my aunt and uncle (my uncle is our officiant). We're at around 30 people and I refuse to expand it.

Rehearsal dinner is typical for those people only in the bridal party. However if his parents are hosting they can invite whoever the like

Is your Photog your Brothers wife?

Usually RD is only wedding party, and immediate family.

So i was planning on Wedding party, parents, Grand parents, siblings and possibly aunts and uncles because my grandmother will be traveling with one/ or both of my aunts and it would be weird to leave them out.

ETA: Since your Photographer is your SIL i would think that she should be invited assuming its a siblings spouse

@ surfergirl, yes my photographer is my my brother's wife.

We specifically did NOT invite sibs and their SO as I have 6 sibs and all have SO. (FH only has 1 sib).

If FHs Godparents are invited, do I invite mine? If I don't is that disrespectful/rude to them?

I just see this has the potential to spiral out of control.

I think siblings should definitely be invited, that doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Maybe if you relent on the sister they won't push the God parents. Although, unless you are pressed for space, I would let them invite who they want since they are paying!

Hmm with yours i would suggest what you have written, and since you're not inviting siblings to the RD then your SIL wouldnt go. i'm not inviting my photographer to ours, or any of my vendors for that matter ( a GM is marrying us)

The only people that should be there are people involved in the ceremony and their significant others.

That being said, my RD kinda exploded quickly as well. We have about 60 people coming (thats half the wedding guest list!) :/ my parents offered to pay for all the extra guests they were kinda forcing on us, and we got a really good deal for the rd, so I can't complain much. The absolute smallest the RD was ever going to be was 38 and that was close family, and bridal party(and SOs) anyways.

Rehearsal dinner is typically for the wedding party and their SOs, immediate family (grandparents, parents, siblings) and any out of town guests. now, in our case, that got a little ridiculous too because ALL of our guests are OOT. lol. we basically invited wedding party, immediate family and extended family that was in town in time for the rehearsal lunch. it only ended up being about 25 people.

honestly, if you aren't paying for it, i wouldn't worry about it. it's their bill. finding a place to accommodate that many for dinner might be an issue, but if they want that many... leave that task them and don't even worry about it.

See my prior post about restaurant reception and RD. Im in the same boat because we are only inviting immediate family to our wedding...so my fils want to invite them all to the RD too. Ugh...

OOT guests? That would cover our entire guest list except for about 10 people. LOL

We weren't going to invite sibs because I have such a large family, (this would be 12 extra people) and were trying to be considerate, budget wise, to the FILs.

I sort of want my SIL there to take pictures that we can add to our wedding DVD. We would invite her under the professional manner as our photographer, but it gets a bit tricky being that she is my sister-in-law.

What about the GM that wants to bring his kids? How do we address that?

OOT guests aren't required it's a nice to do. We're including OOT guests but there's only 6 that will be there that night the rest are coming the day of.

If you truely don't want kids there let the GM know that but be prepared that he may not be able to make the rehersal and will need a quick run through before the ceremony. At least by my provinces laws they are allow to stay home by themselves but it's very child dependent from what I hear from parents.

The only people who you really have to invite to the rehearsal dinner are those that are present at the rehearsal. So your bridal party and any readers. Most of the time, I think couples include the rest of their immediate family because they're close to them and want them there. We're including bridal party + SO's, parents, siblings + SO's and readers + SO's. About 30-35 people at this point.

But if your FIL's are paying, it's up to them who they invite. If you'd prefer to keep it small and limited you may need to decline their offer to host and throw your own.

I will talk to FIL. They are actually very nice and caring people. (I don't want to portray them in any bad light because that is certainly not the case). I think they are just over excited about this and may not even realize this potential guest list is leaning towards the ridiculous.