Rehearsal dinner-should I invite out of town guests?

If your FH's family is paying for the rehearsal, check with your FMIL/FFIL to see if they have room in the budget to accommodate however many number of additional people. If you and your FH are paying for it, then invite whoever you want!

In my opinion I think inviting out of town family to the rehearsal dinner would be classy of you and appreciated by them since they have traveled so far.

It's a nice gesture, but you really don't HAVE to. If your budget allows and you WANT to invite everyone, go for it.

I don't think it's mandatory to host all out of town guests, but it is a nice gesture and will give them a chance to spend more time with you.

No. Don't make this into a second wedding. If you even have a rehearsal it should be short and sweet, and then a casual, short dinner for just the people involved. You are definitely going to have loose ends to tie up and you'll appreciate the time.

Oh wow I thought it was rude to not invite out of towns guests, the more you know. I was planning on inviting whoever wanted to come join us for a simple dinner but @celiamilton now has me thinking otherwise ...

We're opening out rehearsal dinner up to anyone staying on the island where the wedding will be held to show our appreciation for them coming.

We are paying for the dinner. I still don't think it will be a second wedding. Our wedding will have 150 people. I'm talking between maybe 39-45 people and that would only be if they are all able to come. My cousin invited us when we traveled to her wedding in New Orleans and I thought it was nice and a lot of fun. I just didn't know if it would be weird to then invite my two aunts and uncles who live here so they could also spend time with the out of town guests.

However this is all hypothetical. My rehearsal dinner is on a Thursday (I had to because of my venue) so they might all be arriving Friday anyway in which case it will not matter. I haven't checked to see when their flights land yet.

I have been to a couple weddings that have invited OOT guests when they only had a few OOT guests or having a groom's BBQ the night before. In my experience, there were not a significant number over who would normally be at the rehearsal dinner, so it didn't feel like a second wedding.

If its pretty casual and you can afford to feed 15 more people, I say go for it. Just because you invite them doesn't mean that they will come anyway! Personally we did not invite OOT guests because we had a large bridal party and that would have been wayyyy too many people at the RD.

It's definitely not necessary, but it's entirely up to you. @Ashley, I don't think "classy" is the correct word for this situation.

We are inviting our out of town guests. His aunts and uncles (6 total) and mine (8) because we only get to see them maybe 1-2x a year. We are doing a very casual lobster bake at the venue the night before ours. I don't feel like it will be like a second wedding.

I would check with the person paying for the rehearsal dinner if it isn't you, and make sure it is fine with them!

Thanks everybody!

My in-laws are paying for our rehearsal and I know they plan on inviting out-of-towners (largely FH's family who are traveling from Florida to NJ) who are staying at the hotel the night before. With that we'll have around 35-40 people for a casual meal. It's definitely not unheard of and I think it's a nice gesture.

No, you don't have to. I have a lot of OOT guests myself, but it would be a whole other wedding to invite everyone to a function. If you want to keep it small, keep it small. I've toyed around with letting OOT guests know we'll be at one of the restaurants close to the hotel from x pm to x pm if they want to come say hi, but I figure most people will want to do their own thing anyways.