Welcome Party? Rehearsal Dinner? Both?

If you decide to have a welcome dinner, which is optional, it would take place of the rehearsal dinner, which is a necessity if you’re having a rehearsal.

It's totally up to you on whether you want to do a welcome party. If it's in your budget and you really want to host one, go for it! Otherwise, a welcome party is optional. Personally, if I could only do one, I would choose the rehearsal dinner over the welcome party.

I actually asked this question on WeddingWire several months ago, and got a really great response - if you host a welcome dinner the night before your wedding, it will basically just feel like a “redo” at your wedding reception (same people getting together eating dinner again). Instead, I have decided to do the traditional rehearsal dinner with the bridal party the evening before the wedding, then host a farewell brunch for all of our guests on the final day before everyone leaves! Not only would that not take away from your wedding reception, it is a great way to thank everybody and say goodbye, and is usually a much cheaper option than a full dinner!

You do not need to do a welcome dinner and a rehearsal dinner.

Definitely do not need both of them

Some people combine them into one event for convenience.
Typically the rehearsal dinner is casual and inexpensive (pizza and sodas are very common) so adding a few extra seats would not make the price jump that much.

Another option is to skip the welcome dinner and host a breakfast/brunch (depending on how late your reception runs) for guests before they head home the following day.

We also had a destination wedding and didn’t want it to feel like another wedding night so we did the traditional rehearsal dinner and then invited everyone to meet us on the hotel bar for drinks later in the evening. It worked out perfectly

We actually did something very similar! Our wedding was not a destination wedding, but over half our guests were from out of town and had to fly to get there. So instead of a traditional rehearsal dinner with just the wedding party and our parents, we called our rehearsal dinner a "welcome dinner" and invited all of our out-of-town guests as well as family members. We rented out a party room and had heavy appetizer stations from a caterer, got a ton of cupcakes from a local bakery, placed a giant alcohol order ourselves (3 types of wine, 2 types of beer, and 1 type of champagne), hired a couple of students to be the bartenders, and made most of the decorations ourselves. I think the whole event cost around $3000 for roughly 70 guests because so much of it was DIY. It was so much fun to be able to see everyone in a relaxed environment before the wedding the next day, and I would highly recommend going this route. That being said, I would probably invite all guests since your wedding is a destination wedding. I've been to several similar welcome dinners as a guest at destination weddings. We also hosted a farewell brunch the day after the wedding in the restaurant in our hotel block, but this was for the most part only attended by the people staying in the hotel.

I'd do a welcome dinner if you can afford it! It's a great way to include all guests. We had a large rehearsal dinner (70 people) then went back to the hotel bar after and hung out for 2-3 hours because all our guests (in addition to the 70 people at the rehearsal dinner) were there so that was a nice way to get extra time with everyone.

I would personally choose the welcome party IF you're not doing a rehearsal dinner but if it's in your budget to do both then that's up to you.

We did a welcome dinner instead. Hubby & I did a walk-through the day before, then that night my family hosted an optional casual BBQ at the house they rented so guests could get mingle and enjoy casual food & booze. Great way to kick off our DW. The welcome dinner made the wedding much more fun (and less awkward) for guests. I’ve seen this happen at several DWs I‘ve attended.

We are also having a "domestic destination" wedding with 100% of everyone coming in from other states and cities. We are not having a welcome dinner, we are going to have the traditional rehearsal and dinner then meet everyone out afterwards for a couple drinks at a local bar. Due to Covid, we are cutting back on our guest list and our wedding weekend events, but it's honestly made it much easier.

View Quoted Comment This is what I’m planning to do! Did you have a tab at the bar or did people pay for their own drinks?

View Quoted Comment People paid for their own drinks.

View Quoted Comment Awesome, that’s what we plan to do too!