Rehearsal Dinner - Invite ceremony musicians and officiant?

Our officiant (which is our pastor) will be at our rehearsal, even though we aren't getting married in the church. He is very involved though, we attend his services, he is doing our marriage counseling, he wanted us to bump up the wedding b/c he is super excited for us!I don't know about the musician.

Are the musicians hired help or friends? I sang at a cousin's wedding and I was invited to the rehearsal dinner and wedding.

If they are hired help, they are not necessarily invited to the reception or rehearsal dinners. If they are friends then they should be.

I don't believe you have to invite anyone you hire and are paying for their service to your rehearsal dinner. I only have our immediate families, the wedding party, and the officiant.

We invited the pastor but he opted not to come to the dinner, we didn't invite the violinist; she had done my bro's friend's wedding and they hadnt' invited her so we figured that was fine to do..also I think it would be a bit awkward for her being the only stranger at an intimate dinner. (we had like 15 people at it)

We invited the priest to both but not the cantor or organist as we were paying them.

We are planning on the rehersal dinner being immediate family and the bridal party, we may or may not invite the officiant...I will leave that up to my parents since they are paying for the dinner.

Our venue offers meals for our vendors at a reduced price as part of our wedding package so if they would like food they will have that available.

Overall I would say that it depends on your relationship with the person/people. If they are hired vendors that you have no personal ties to then it's their job to be there, don't feel like you are inconviencing them.

We invited both our musicians and officiant to rehearsal dinner and the reception. The minister came to the reception for dinner and dancing but had to miss rehearsal dinner because of a family birthday party. He would have came otherwise. Our musicians declined both. 2 of the musicians were high school band directors so it wouldn't have been weird for them to be there though.

I say yes to the officiant, no to the musicians. unless you have the money then why not?

We are not inviting either one to the rehearsal dinner. But we are inviting the Reverand to the Reception

If your officiant is someone you have known since childhood OR someone you've developed a deep friendship with, you could invite them. Most of us will respectfully decline because it's a family party. Same with the wedding. I only stay for part of the cocktail hour, (I always tell my couples NOT to include me in the count) because usually the family and some of the guests want to talk to me about the ceremony (mine are pretty wild, lol......)

As far as the musicians, I don't think you have to invite ceremony musicians to either; in fact, they may not be able to stay. Many church musicians do lots of events over the course of a weekend (not only weddings) and again, if they are not close friends, they probably won't be comfortable in a room full of strangers.

But it's very nice that you thought to ask!

Celia