Welcome Party vs Rehearsal Dinner

If you want to and you can afford it, go for a full welcome party. Some people want to host all of their OOT guests at RD. There is not set rule either way.

If you want to go for it.

I personally wouldn't want another mini wedding the night before.

Do you want another wedding? Because that's what it'll feel like.

Personally, I think it takes away from the wedding.

Your guests may just want to do their own thing Friday night and have the opportunity to relax after traveling. I would let them entertain themselves Friday.

The 50 people is the number of people that have to be at the rehearsal. thats literally JUST our wedding party and their spouses+ both sets of parents. (its really like 47 people)

OP, I am in somewhat the same boat as you.. But my OOT guests are coming from FL and OH for our wedding in NY. I feel like I should invite them to a Welcome Dinner as well; but it would be just about the same amount of people (52) as the actual wedding (67).. I am feeling conflicted It's not etiquette to pick and choose/nor would we want to do that. What to do, what to do!!!???

We will have a lot of people in town, but our rehearsal dinner is just going to be the wedding party. It will be early in the evening, so there can be an "after party"... but I'm not planning that. It can just happen naturally, or not. I just don't want to worry about organizing something else.

We are going to do a farewell breakfast the morning after, but that will be very basic and just the guests who stayed at the hotel.

We are doing a welcome party for out of town guests...it is super casual, but the location is across the street from the hotel. We figured they would need to eat and would love to catch up with family. To make it affordable we are not providing alcohol, but people can buy their own for this one (open bar at the wedding).

We did a welcome dinner but all of our guests had to travel for our wedding. We enjoyed it because it gave us a chance to visit with each guest before the wedding which made our reception much more relaxed. On the downside, it was expensive.

We are having a DW. Its on a Friday so most people are coming down thursday and leaving saturday afternoon. We are hosting a welcome happy hour that Thursday. But only have dinner with family/wedding party.

We're doing a Welcome Party/Dinner immediately following the ceremony rehearsal. I really wanted just a rehearsal dinner with wedding party and immediate family, but FMIL was adamant that it was proper etiquette to invite all OOT guests and family too. So we'll have about 70 at the Welcome party and 135 at the wedding. I agree it's a mini-wedding before the wedding, but FMIL really wanted this, she's the one hosting so I decided to back down.

I would skip it especially if you're already having that many people at the rehearsal dinner. Ours is just bridal party, immediate family, and significant others and the total is over 40 people. If we added OOT guests we would be well over 100. Seems like an unnecessary expense to me.

I think a welcome dinner is appropriate in your situation and that's what I would do. Remember, you can just have pizza and beer if you want.

I went middle of the road, I did a rehearsal dinner at a restaurant with gifts and a thank you speech for only those involved in the rehearsal/wedding and their spouses, but then casual welcome drinks at the guest hotel afterward, open to everyone. It gave everyone a chance to greet each other as they trickled in since everyone was coming from out of state, but it was a lot cheaper, easier to plan, and more casual to just have drinks and hanging out.

That's a very large guest count already for the rehearsal dinner imho. We only have 25 including myself and FH and we're stressing to do that and the wedding of 175 people. I would just think hard about how much work, time, and money you can spend on this and see if you really want basically a second wedding.

If you can afford to fully host everyone two nights in a row, go right for it. We skipped the rehearsal/RD/welcome dinner for this very reason. All but maybe 10 of our guests were from out of town and we did not want the expense or pressure of hosting two huge events back to back.

Hi Megan- I am wondering how this went for you. We are planning an "open house" the night before from 4-8pm where people can come and go as they please (Sat- our wedding is a holiday weekend and on a Sun). We are planning to do a cash bar (open bar at the wedding) and supply some hors d'oeuvres (specifying a full meal will not be served). I feel like there is a lot of judgment about asking guests to pay for their own drinks at this welcome party. How did it go for you? Thanks!