Rehearsal Dinner vs Welcome Party?

Well, if I wasn't having a rehearsal, there would be no need for a rehearsal dinner. I would do the welcome party.

I'm toying with the idea of having more of a cocktail party the night before at a beautiful bar in the French Quarter.

Welcome party. It is what we are doing.
Why? Welcome dinner/party is open to everyone traveling from out of town gives people a chance to mingle/get to know eachother/do toasts if they want etc. before your wedding/reception AND is inclusive of people both in your wedding and those that aren't but are spending their time/money to celebrate with you. It's less formal normally and more relaxed and fun.
In our case we are going to do buffalo wings, beef on deck and beer/wine, people can come if they want or not, either way ! This was also cheaper for us to do considering the amount of people we are having (and reception will be a formal sit down served dinner)

Now, if you don't have the budget for either, then don't worry about it, I was not going to do either one but it is kind of tradition in my FH's family to do the welcome party and we found a reasonably priced way to do it

We have no BP, thus no rehearsal. He and I with parents will go see the space that morning probably, nothing crazy, I'm sure we will grab lunch or something.

For that evening we were doing a welcome party but it was adding up. So now we are doing a champagne and dessert reception from 8pm - 10pm. I've been working with the person doing my cake to do a nice dessert bar, just unsure of how many option to offer. We will have charcuterie boards as well.

I would do neither, if there was no need for a rehearsal. I'd spend the money elsewhere.

We are having a welcome party. I’m excited because almost everyone is traveling for our wedding and this gives us time to greet our guests and catch up so we won’t feel like we are spending our entire wedding day making small talk.

We’re calling ours a “Welcome-Rehearsal Buffett”. We’re having a 40 guest small destination wedding. After the super short and quick run through on the ocean lawn we plan on having a buffet in the resort restaurant. Pizza,wings,dips,cheese display.. Something super super casual. We just wanted a fun relaxing get together with everyone before the big day. Since our wedding is so small we’ll be able to accommodate that!

Everyone is coming from out of town for our wedding so we're having a welcome party. My dad is renting a brewery for two hours and we're just going to have pizza and beer. Very casual!

Depends on how many people you have traveling from out of town really. We are doing a very very intimate rehearsal dinner in the form of a pizza party (pizza, wings and salad) and board games with our kids, siblings, and parents the Thursday prior. Then because we have folks coming from out of town we were able to reserve a cool venue in DC for free for a Welcome Party with a taco bar.

I would prefer a welcome party since we have a lot of OOT guests, way more than we can invite to the rehearsal dinner. We're considering telling everyone that we'll be at X pub 2 nights before the wedding if they would like to stop by and say hi. No food or drinks provided or promised, very informal, but that way it's a scheduled time rather than people trying to make their own visitation schedules before the wedding (which happens in my family frequently!)

You only need to have a rehearsal dinner if you are having s rehearsal on a day that is not your wedding day. A welcome dinner is nice if you are having a lot of OOT guests.

We hosted a welcome dinner at our home the night before from 6-9 for about 25 people. We catered in NY Kosher deli, which was a real treat for our Florida family and friends. We thought about a restaurant but there were too many different dietary restrictions that this was easier. We have falafel and knishes for the vegetarians and vegans, and the deli worked for those who keep Kosher. It also helped keep costs down as dinner would have cost at least $1500 and catering in the house cost about $400 including dessert, wine, beer, cider, soft drinks and paper goods.