Who usually attends the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner!?

Anyone part of the rehearsal should be invited. That includes readers, the officiant, bridal party, parents, grandparents, etc. and if they have significant others you can afford to invite, they should be invited as well.

Also many people invite out of town guests as well, though that depends on how many you have (most of our guests are OOT so we couldn't invite all of them)

Agree with both ChrisK and FutureMrsP - bridal party + readers + officiant (who may/may not attend), and if they have SOs. After that, if you have a few OOT guests coming in that day, it's polite to invite them - but if you have too many OOT guests, you can't choose a few to invite and not others - at that point, it's all or none.

My brother's RD, my father invited the out of town guests, plus bridal party plus readers and SOs, and it was around forty or fifty people. We had small floral centerpieces on the tables, and it was in a private room at a moderately priced restaurant.

My RD, my in laws don't have a lot of money and are very casual people so we kept it to bridal party + readers and SOs only, and it was 18 of us at a farm stand/country cafe, and people just ordered off the menu fried chicken, turkey dinner, chicken-fried steak, etc.

Our readers didn't rehearse with us, but one was OOT and came to dinner. We invited anyone that was in town Friday night to the dinner because we weren't paying by the head (did heavy apps and drinks). Some took us up, some didn't. A lot of people didn't come in until Saturday, though.

The only required people are those that participate in the rehearsal, and their SOs, and usually immediate family.

Oh and my officiant didn't attend rehearsal, so didn't attend dinner.

Parents and anyone in the ceremony should be invited. extending the invite to immediate family is nice, such as siblings and grandparents. if you're really generous, inviting out of town guests is also a nice gesture, but due to finances sometimes people skip out on that.

we invited everyone IN our wedding as well as all attending family that happened to be in the area the day before the wedding (parents, siblings, cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles). it only ended up being about 25 of us.

Parents, bridal party and my grandma (she flies in that day and is staying with my parents). No one else. And I am having it the Thursday before for that reason I don't wa t anyone else there.

We are doing it cheap and BBQ in our back yard.

We are only having those involved in the rehearsal because 90% of our guests are out of town

On the rare occasions that I do a rehearsal, I prefer that anyone participating in any way attend: brides, grooms, bridesmaids, groomsmen, readers, parents (who respond "We do").

If other people are at the rehearsal, they want to butt in with their ideas of how "it should be" done and it makes the rehearsal run too long.

Ours is going to be parents, bridal party, SOs of bridal party to act as a "test audience", readers, and our sound guy.

Parents, bridal party with S/O's, the officiant and/or coordinator (if they are coming) . Readers? Not necessary. On the rare occasions that I do a rehearsal, the readers are not usually invited (because we don't have them practice the readings). Don't make it a second wedding. Keep it short, sweet, casual and simple for you.

I would invite anyone participating in the wedding, parents, and SOs of anyone invited.

My FILs keep wanting to add other people on who are going to be in town already but I am holding firm that they can come to the dinner, but not the rehearsal itself. We are already only having a few people at our wedding, I want most of them to be surprised by the ceremony and decor.