Welcome Party - Majority of guests are out of town

If you are inviting guests to a welcome event, you pay- for everything.

If you can't afford to host the, don't invite them. It's not mandatory to host OOT's.

If you can't afford it, don't host it. If you want to do something, it doesn't have to be fancy. Something as simple as drinks and appetizers at your home (if you have the room) is fine.

Absolutely agree with Muriel. It is not necessary to have this party, but once you do, you should pay for everything, not just 1 drink.

If you are having any sort of welcome event, you should host it 100% Otherwise, maybe just send out an informal thing that you are planning to hang out at a certain bar on Friday and would love to see anyone who is in town.

Scale down on the welcome party if you’re having trouble affording it. I’m hosting a welcome dinner for oot guests and it’s going to be me ordering some doordash at the hotel because that’s what I can afford right now.

I agree...you don't have to do a welcome party if it's out of budget. Even if they are coming from out of town, most people will not have the expectation of a welcome party. But if you do invite them, it has to be on you! We're doing one (FMIL insisted), and we're doing open beer/wine/champagne plus appetizers.

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We pretty much want to do what you mentioned - a casual hang out, not like an official welcome party. But everything seems to point to it having to be something we pay for.

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If you are intending on including the information in your invitation, then I would assume you were hosting it. However, if you just say to people through word of mouth that you'll be at X Location Friday night, I would not expect you to be picking up the tab.

I would just shoot them a txt letting them know you guys are going to hang out at the bar. Don’t make it an official party.

I'm taking everyone to a baseball game as our welcome party/rehearsal dinner.

We are doing a welcome party as well and are planning to host. If you’re not willing to pay, maybe you could avoid putting it in the invites and informing guests by word of mouth. We’ve been to a few destination weddings and have had group get togethers that were not hosted and more like “we will be at this bar at this time if you’d like to join us” type of deal.

We are talking about doing a more casual welcome party since we will have a lot of OOT folks, and it's a good way to maximize the time spent with friends and family that you don't see often, and in a less hectic setting than the wedding itself. We haven't really worked out the details, but we live on 20 acres so we're thinking of doing a backyard BBQ thing with maybe a keg. Since we also have a large group of friends that are campers, and we often throw woodsy type potluck parties for special events, I'm considering making it a potluck where we would provide all of the meat and drink and our local camper friends will bring sides (our usual way of doing these things). Bear in mind I would never ask our traveling guests to provide food, but the friends I'm thinking about for the potluck are all people who have asked how they can help, and what they can do... so making a side dish or a cheese ball or something seems perfect. Still pondering that of course, but it's an option. I think when people ask how they can help, they usually mean it - and appreciate being asked for a way to really contribute.

Basically I think there are lots of ways to be inclusive and not break the bank. BBQ, picnic style, etc. seems to be a nice way to do things, especially in summer.