Rehearsal/ dinner

It is not required to invite out of town guests to the rehersal dinner, only the people participating in the rehersal, so your bridal party and usually immediate family (parents). Most of my guests are out of town as well! Only the bridal party and their S/O, parents and grandparents are invited to our rehersal dinner

Yeah it can definitely add up!!! I’m only inviting the bridal party, I’m not even including their special someone...plus I’ll be seeing them at the wedding

You dont need to invite out of town guests. We are doing bridal party, their SOs, my brothers, and both sets of parents plus FHs uncle hes really close to. About 30 adults. Also, the dinner itself can be super lowkey if you want. We are having it at my brothers house, who has a pool, and we are having roast beef sandwiches, salads, snacks, and drinks. You could do pizza and wings, or just go to a lowkey pub style restaurant if you want!

Don't invite the guests then, I think that's optional

It's not a necessity to invite out of town guests to the rehearsal.

Agreed with all the above! We are having a rehearsal dinner of 18 people, which was a compromise because my partner wanted a bigger wedding (96 people) and I wanted something really small, so it's kind of like having both.

It is not required to invite out of town guests to the night before dinner...im in the same boat literally all of my guests are out of town/out of state..so we will not be inviting them, we arent trying to host 2 dinners for 100+ people 2x lol.

We are just inviting our parents, our bridal party and their spouses if they have one, our grandmas and our officiant who is my uncle and his wife

Pizza and wings at my house sounds nice! Plus a good way to show my out of state family our new home! Paper plates for an easy clean up! Thanks for the feedback. I know it’s not necessary to invite out of state guests but it’s proper etiquette I thought.
There will still be about 25 ppl at mine but I think pizza is great! Thanks

For me, when we have our rehearsal, no one who's not in the wedding party is going to be there. Meaning only parents of the the bride (me) and the groom, the flower children, ring bearer, best man, maid of honour, bridesmaids and officiant will be there. That's it. No one else needs to be there for it. It would just be a headache and they'll see the wedding when they see it, lmao! That's how I look at it. You shouldn't feel obligated to invite your guests to the rehearsal, especially if it would be expensive for you.

Yes totally! If I had invited all out of towners to mine it would have cost me way too much too

Definitely not an etiquette thing to feed out of town guests the night before. The only thing that is required is a meal after for anyone involved in your actual rehearsal. Typically this would include parents and grandparents too. You also need to include the significant others of anyone involved.

We are having the rehearsal w just the bridal party then will be having a welcome event immediately following that will be just a cocktail party and include out of town guests

Same boat, so only the bridal party (including kids and significant others) and immediate family will be at the rehearsal dinner. Doing it this way allowed my in-laws to be able to do a lobster bake, which will be awesome!

After dinner, we're going to be hanging out at the hotel bar to have an informal mixer with the rest of the guests.

I don't think it's truly etiquette. It's a nice gesture but not necessary. You can't have a second reception so keep it to bridal party, parents, and bridal party SO's.

It is traditional ettiquite unless the out of town guest count is a very high number, like in your case. Smallish OOT guest list would normally be included at the rehearsal dinner. My FW's aunt graciously offered to host the rehearsal dinner but wanted to include everyone from out of town. That would be like 80 people. No way! We don't need 2 receptions. We're doing the private rehearsal and then a meet and greet with all later.

All of my guests are out of town as well. We're going to do wedding party, parents, and grandparents.