Welcome Reception?

Are you having a destination wedding?

Could you all meet at a local bar or pub?

There's a few things you can do. Sometimes people invite out of town guests to the rehearsal dinner (or lunch in your case) as an extra thank you for spending the money to come to your wedding. Our rehearsal dinner restaurant is pretty pricey and can only accommodate our wedding party plus close family, so we are doing a Welcome Party the night before that. It will be super casual, probably a bbq or pizzas and beer type of thing at one of our parent's houses (or maybe even our house). You don't need to do something expensive, but it is nice to spend a little extra time with the people who are going to such an effort to be there for your big day!

We are doing a destination wedding, so it might be a little different. After the RD we are doing a bonfire on the beach and inviting everyone hang out, drink etc

You definitely do not need to host anything for them the night before. You are hosting them the entire next day at the wedding - they can be on their own for one night. And I also think that it's rude for them to ask if you are having a dinner.

You definitely don't need to add another hosted event to the wedding weekend!!

You could keep things super casual a name a bar that everyone could meet up at, or just tell your friends to let you know what they're up to the night before and you'll see if you can swing by to say hi!

You definitely don't need to host anything else! But if you aren't too busy, pick a local bar to meet up at. Just make it clear that you're staying for one or two drinks and then you have to go, so you don't rack up a big bar tab and so you get a good night's sleep!

You're not required to host a welcome reception. It's a nice touch, especially for a destination wedding, but not required. And it's rude of guests to ask you to. If they want to see you, they can come to your hotel room to say hello.

You don't need to host anything, but people may just want to spend some time with you since it can be hard to get one on one time at the wedding. An informal meetup at a local bar could be a nice touch.

We're hosting a welcome dinner for everyone, but are having a DW so are upping our hosting level.

If you aren't having a DW, it's definitely not at all necessary - but I like the idea of mentioning that you'll be at a casual pub type place and you'd love to see them.

It's definitely not a requirement. I've seen friends invite their out of town guests to a particular bar the night before the wedding.

It's *sort of* a destination wedding, because it's in RI and none of the family is actually from RI so it's at least 40 minutes for everyone to get there. My family is mostly from MA and Maine, and there are 5 couples who have to fly to get here (if they end up coming at all). Thanks for the great ideas everyone!

The only reason we're doing a rehearsal lunch and not a dinner is because the actual rehearsal must be before 12pm, because the venue has another wedding going on that afternoon so we cannot be there when that's happening. I didn't want to make everyone leave for a few hours and have to come back so we just booked a lunch for right after. This solves the problem of anyone who couldn't check into their hotel until 3pm also. It's annoying though having that down time at night and it feels like people are expecting something to be going on. I really appreciate all the suggestions- thanks!

I am doing a welcome wine tasting at a local vineyard on the Friday afternoon for those already in town. Tastings cost $10/person so it is super reasonable and I think would be fun for everyone to meet each other ahead of the wedding. My wedding is in an area with a lot of wineries and I love this one.

I wouldn't consider that a DW. We got married in NJ, where most of my family lives, but H's family and most of our friends traveled from PA, MD, DE...and a few flew from Florida and North Carolina. We didn't have any sort of welcome dinner. Please don't feel like you're required to have something just because people (for some reason...) are expecting it!

We are having a beach bonfire open to everyone who will be around Friday night. It'll start right after the rehearsal dinner. It's not going to be super expensive. Getting stuff to make s'mores, some coffee and hot chocolate to go from Starbucks and beer and wine.

I just got my friends STD with the wedding website. On their website it looks like they are having a welcome reception Friday at the hotel bar at 7pm and then a Sunday brunch at the hotel bar. Since it's on the website it looks like everyone is welcome which is a lot of people and $$$. I'm assuming this hotel is where the bride and groom are staying? Its not the hotel they listed under accommodations. It's in California and I think people are coming from everywhere so they are offering this and they can afford it. I have not been or invited to any welcome receptions otherwise.

I plan to invite my out of town guests to the rehearsal meal. I have a few guests that will be driving from about 4 hours away and a few flying in. I want to spend some additional time with them since I don't see them often. I definitely don't think you need to though

Not a necessity. I plan to have a very informal one similar to Erin Wood's or a bowling party with pizza. 90% of our guests will be flying in for our wedding and I'd like to spend some time with them and not feel rushed at the wedding trying to see everyone.

We had a DW and hosted a welcome boat cruise with a casual dinner on board.

Depending on how the schedule lines up, we may not see them before the wedding. However, we may see the out of towners after the wedding for a lunch or something.

We will have to see when they are here and what our schedule will be like unfortunately.