Rehearsal Dinner

We are and I'm really hoping all don't show up 😂🤷

We are doing our rehearsal 2 days before the wedding to alleviate a bit of the stress. We are also keeping it just immediate family, bridal party and SOs. The only out of town family that will be there at that time is my one aunt so I'm inviting her. There is no need to host 2 major events back to back.

We invited everyone who was around to come.
I've seen it suggested here you could have a happy hour at a bar after the actual rehearsal dinner for a more laid back approach to a welcome party. Then also by saying "hey we'll be at xyz bar until xx time if you'd like to swing by and say hi, grab a drink, etc..." it can be the guests footing their own bill for that .

I didn't because you're right - that would be a ridiculous amount of people I know it would be nice to but if it isn't in your budget it's ok to keep it just wedding party and whomever is involved in the rehearsal process

We did not, most of our guests will be traveling in and it would just end up being everyone from the wedding. Too overwhelming. We are planning to host like a 1-2 hour “gathering” in the hotel lobby.

I had a destination wedding so obviously all guest were out of town. I had a small dinner which was sort of the rehearsal dinner but nothing official. Just an excluded area in one of the restaurants in the hotel that you were able to come or not. We then had a welcome party for all the guest. I had different concept and decor then the wedding and a more lay back feel. I had invitations for this so it was more formal.

We’re thowing a very casual welcome party for all out of town guests. And hosting a much more intimate reversal dinner the day before.

Same! My FH's entire family is from out of town. I really wanted just the wedding party at the rehearsal dinner. His parents are paying for the dinner (and the majority of the wedding) and they wanted everyone there. So we're inviting all out of town guests along with the wedding party. Our tentative headcount is literally half of the people invited to the wedding.

We kept ours just to the wedding party and their SOs, and direct family members like FH's sisters, who aren't actually in the wedding, but are still obviously important people. Our guest count is already at 40ish for the rehearsal dinner and we just couldn't afford to add more people to invite out of towners.

Nope! Only bridal party and SO's. Otherwise its like a second wedding.

Since most of our guest list was from out of town, instead of hosting a dinner, we had a Welcome Reception instead (we skipped the rehearsal in general — as the BP was also out of towners). We had apps and drinks and this way still got to greet and treat everyone in a casual setting without basically hosting a 2nd wedding

Most of our guests are from out of town/out of state. We arent inviting them. We are only inviting people who will be in the wedding-our parents,grandmothers, wedding party and their plus ones and officiant.
If we invited our out of town guests it would be like hosting another wedding and that makes no sense lol

I hadn't ever heard of inviting the out of town guests to the rehearsal dinner until I joined this forum. I won't be inviting them.

We had a small wedding party to begin with. Never heard of inviting out of town guest to rehearsal. We used our church hall for our rehearsal dinner to keep cost down. We ordered a couple of pizzas and had a blast.

After reading this thread though I don't want to invite everyone and am feeling much better about not doing it so thank you ladies 😂

Some do, some don't, it's a matter of preference. A small number of my FHs family is from out of state so we're inviting them to the rehearsal dinner as well as a welcome. My FFIL is paying for dinner so he didn't mind adding 5 more people to the list. I wasn't going to invite my side because they all come back to the area fairly often so it wasn't a big deal to them.

We are having a DW so everyone would be out of town our venue came with a few cabins so we gave priority to immediate family and wedding party to get the cabins so everyone going to the rehearsal dinner will either be staying on property or the wedding party who didn’t want to stay on property

Personally I don't like the idea of having extra people around for rehearsal, it takes away the surprise and intimacy I want.
But that's also why some people love it! 🤷😆
Figure out what your budget can handle and work up from there is my suggestion

We had the same issue- we are doing an early rehearsal and dinner with just the bridal party then a welcome party starting around 8pm to accommodate the out of town guests.

I’m inviting all 80 of my guests because we’re all traveling. Idk who will say yes, but I’m planning to get deli sandwich and shrimp platters from Publix and s’mores for the fire pit.