Welcome party (not rehearsal dinner) Invitations? Destination wedding

To be honest, I would send out a Facebook message or a group text. Why waste the money adding it to the invites? Seems like a lot of extra work and stress!

Well for my friends I'm confident that they will use the website and RSVP online but for my parents friends and older relatives I'm concerned there. I appreciate your feedback!

Are you doing any sort of details card?

The DW that FH and I attended in February had a welcome dinner and we just got an email with the info and it was mentioned on the FB group that they used. We're doing a welcome dinner (also DW) but FILs are hosting and they needed entree choices so they did send actual invitations.

I would put it on your wedding website, and spread by word of mouth if it's going to be casual! If you expect most guests to attend, a formal invite or email invite would work too. I don't know if RSVP is necessary unless you need it for food or drink count. I wouldn't count on every guest attending, but most probably will especially the ones flying in.

I would formally invite them, you always have those that don’t have email, don’t read it, forget about it, don’t pay attention to it....need I go on? if you don’t need a head count, you can print up something nice and slip it in the invitation; if you need a headcount and they need to respond with a yes/no, then there needs to be a formal way of them RSVP’ing to you.

We are sending electronic invites for these pre-wedding events.

I did a separate card included in the invites about our rehearsal dinner (as we are inviting out of town guests as well as our wedding party so it will be able 50 people). It was easier for me to not have to worry about keeping track who we needed to contact or did they see the text/facebook message. Obviously in my situation I could not put it on my website. We worded on there something like" If you or your significant other cannot attend, please let us know by ____".

For my friends destination wedding a few years ago I think she just told us by word of mouth which worked out fine, there were only 25 guests though. For my other friends destination wedding last year, she did a welcome party the night before and did not ask for RSVP. They offered drinks and had a dessert table. She had a details card about it and it was on their website. Her wedding was probably 120ish. I'm not sure how many guests came but it seemed like most of her guests at the wedding were there since we all came a distance. I personally think that having it on a details card will ensure that everyone will see it. You could also put on your details card (ie that has accommodations info already) something like "For more information on our welcome party and other details, please go to (your website)".

This is all super helpful! I will need a headcount for our caterer but they are estimating a lot of food per person so I think I don't have to be to the tee here. Our wedding website also encourages everyone to go to a light dinner (I'm thinking people could go to the restaurant at the hotel) and then head over to us.

We did a “details” card that included a “rest and recovery” day that we will be hosting poolside on the day after the wedding.

We are also doing a group night out on the Saturday night before the wedding, but we are just letting people know via word of mouth.

We are doing a welcome party as well and this is the card we included with the invitations. We are having people reply to all events on our wedding website.

We had about a 70/30 split with OOT/Locals. We opted to invite everyone to the "welcome dinner." We will have 100 attend the wedding and about 90 attend the welcome dinner.

Minted has an option on its invites that allows you to print a "weekend wedding schedule" (or something similar) on the back of the invite. (I've read some posts that people won't look on the back but I haven't had an issue yet.) So, we noted that there is a welcome dinner the night before. On top of that, our RSVP card included a notation where the guests write their names and indicate which event(s) they are attending. This way, we know who will be coming to each event. So far, it's been pretty slick with no hiccups. The invite includes our website so they can see all the "wedding events" as well, in case there was any confusion on whether they can come to what event. And many websites allow you to RSVP online for each event (which we did not do--did paper versions).

If you opt not to invite each guest to the cocktail party, I'd say send out separate invites for the "event" and I'd say you can stuff them into your current invitation with an notation to RSVP to you or other host/hostess via email.

I sent out an Evite to folks for our DW welcome BBQ dinner my family hosted. Can you do that and put a link on your website to it?

I don’t remember our wording but made it sound optional so something like “If you’re in town and would like to stop by for food, drinks or to mingle” feel free to swing by our casual BBQ anytime 4-8 pm. Just let us know if you’ll be there so we know how much food to get.”

We did a business card with the wedding logo that says:

"View the couple's love story, a full list of events, suggested accommodations and more on their wedding website."

Then we listed the website and passcode. This card will be with the directions card and the "Unfortunately there will be no children" card, tied together nicely.

I put the information for our welcome reception on the details card and am having guests RSVP for all events on the website. It's casual and I don't care if people just show up, but I'd like a general idea of guest count so I know how much food and drink to get.

Minted had the option to add text to the back of the invitation for $35 so that's what I did. I added in the Weekend Schedule which included the Welcome Dinner and Welcome Drinks. I'm having people RSVP on the website for those. they are also listed on the website of course. People have been pretty good about rsvping for it through the website but I've also had a lot of people tell me they are coming vs rsvping.

We had a destination wedding as well and knew that not everyone could make the welcome dinner, so we took a rough count of how many people lived near town along with how many had told us they would be getting in early..we had about 90 people at the wedding and only 40 were going to be there early enough for a welcome dinner, so we just texted the couples who were going to be there the date/time/location if it. Had it at the rooftop patio of a local hotel with heavy hors d'oeuvres and open bar for 3hrs, it was a total hit and it was way cheaper than a formal sit down dinner!
And bonus...the town had a firework show that night so we had a primo view for free and no crazy crowds!

I think if you need a set head count its better to do a formal invitation. If it's casual and you don't mind someone rocking up who didn't give an indication of them coming, then I think an email would suffice or maybe even an electronic invitation.

Include an additional "welcome reception" card in your invitation. We included one for rehearsal dinner - it included a different RSVP date and RSVP e-mail address (FMIL)

I have no clue if this is the correct etiquette or not but here is what we did. We are having a rehearsal on the Thursday before the wedding (wedding is Saturday) since that is the day our priest wanted to have it. That night we will do a small dinner at a restaurant with only the wedding party and immediate family. Then, since about 80% of our guest are from OOT we decided to do a welcome party on the night before the wedding, we are keeping it simple - beer and wine and pizza (my parents graciously offered to host it) and what I did was include an insert card in the invites for the people we invited to that with an RSVP date to my email. I know our crowd and the majority of them will be able to email and the others who can't (elderly family) are coming with other cousins, etc so they'll RSVP for them. We went with Vistaprint for our invites and the cards we added weren't that expensive. Hope this helps! Happy planning!