Rehearsal Dinner

I would either just invite people in the wedding ceremony and immediate family, or invite all out of town guests. I wouldn’t pick some out of town guests to invite and not invite others. For my wedding, we’re just doing people in the ceremony and immediate family for the rehearsal dinner, because otherwise it would be way too many people!

We are only inviting our parents, and our bridal party. Most of our guests are coming from out of town about 3.5 hours away, if we invited all out of town family and guests the rehearsal dinner would be huge.

We are just doing the bridal party, flower girls and immediate family. We may or may not have out of town guests coming so we’re just keeping it small so we know what to expect.

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I was literally just looking at your profile because you commenting in someone else's thread and we have the same first name!

I think i will probably just do immediate family and the bridal party and their spouses (there's only 2 of them.) and our grandparents.

You should either invite all out of town guests. It would be rude to select some, but not all.

We are doing bridal party, parents, moms sisters and grooms family if they come up for the wedding. Everyone is traveling to the wedding but we don’t want a lot of people for the rehearsal dinner. We picked moms sisters only because there are only 3 of them and their small families. We are close with them so it’s important to have them at the rehearsal dinner because they have done so much for us.

Wedding party and grandparents. That's it, period. Good luck to you!

Traditionally it's just your wedding party, immediate family and grandparents (potentially). Or anyone helping to pay for things.

But it sounds like you're doing something non-traditional. We invited the wedding party and their families, as well as our immediate families, which is 29. We're also including other guests traveling from out of town, but it only adds 6 more people. So 35 for our rehearsal dinner, and 53 for the wedding (including us!). We are inviting out-of-towners because we figure they won't have anything else to do and it will give us time to spend with them catching up since we know it will be pretty hectic the day of the wedding.

I'd say this. If it's at a park anyway, and space isn't an issue, there's no harm in inviting everyone from out of town. However, if there will be any spoilers you don't want all the guests to know about, or if you think more people will just get in the way, just invite the wedding party and close family.

We are inviting
4 parents
1 grandparent2 flower girls2 flower girl parents4 groomsmen4 wives/fiances of groomsmen4 kids of groomsmen3 ushers3 ushers significant others3 ushers kids2 ring bearers4 bridesmaids4 bridesmaids significant others2 bridesmaids kids 1 officiant2 almost newlyweds [ourselves]For a total of 44 people.No way am I inviting out of town guests.

I don't think there's a need to invite out of town guests, just bridal party and immediate family. You could have a separate informal welcome reception after the rehearsal dinner if you feel the need to greet guests who are traveling. This could just be appetizers and drinks at a hotel where most of your guests are staying or at your/your family's home if local.

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I agree. I talked with my mom last night and agreed that the only out of town guests we will be inviting will be my grandma and my dad and step mom, who would be coming regardless.

The rehearsal dinner usually includes anyone actually in the wedding ceremony and their significant others (or in the case of small children, their parents). So the couple, their parents (usually siblings too), members of the wedding party, anyone doing a reading, flower girl, ring bearer, and the officiant, plus all of their partners.

If you cannot afford to feed all of those people, then I wouldn't host a rehearsal dinner. I would just do a rehearsal with those who are in the wedding, and skip the dinner. If you wanted, you could do a more intimate dinner with a smaller group (just you two and your parents, just you two and your immediate families, you and your parents and MOH/BM and their partners), but I wouldn't call it a rehearsal dinner because the assumption would be that others are invited.

If you are inviting out-of-town guests, then that is called a welcome party, not a rehearsal dinner.

I don't think you should pick and choose guests within specific groups. In other words, it would be inappropriate to invite SOME people who are traveling, but not all.

As an out-of-towner for fair amount of weddings, I think it's generally accepted that only the wedding party and immediate family need to be at the rehearsal dinner. I don't think anyone besides your mother will be upset if you don't invite them.
The only thing I would recommend is including the bridal party's dates at the rehearsal dinner.

I always thought the rehearsal dinner was designated for those who are in the wedding party and the parents to attend after you all have rehearsed the wedding before the actual wedding the next day..?? I'd assume the only guest that should attend are those listed.