How many ppl at your rehearsal dinner? (planning Rehearsal Dinner questions)

We just invited immediate family, wedding party (and spouses/SOs) and a couple out of town family members. It's really up to you if you want to keep it more intimate. I've been to out of town weddings where all of us OOT guests were invited, and those are fun too!

We are inviting immediate family (parents, siblings, grandparents), bridal party and SOs, and our officiant and his family (also FH's cousin, I wouldn't invite them if they were someone we didn't already know). We are having a party after with cocktails for our out of town guests, but there's no real need to do this.

Since my FIL's are hosting the rehearsal dinner, I let them decide. Bridal party and immediate family would about 10 ppl, they opted to include all siblings as well which puts it around 24ish people.

We are having a welcome party with light bites and drinks (beer, wine, signature). The light bites aren't light at all but we don't want people to show up starving and clear out the bbq buffet which is catered from a local food truck. This will be at 7:30pm and is a cocktail reception format. Essentially everyone is invited to stop by, it's on our rooftop, which has a large lounge that holds 275 if it rains. Im actually in the middle of working on invitations now!

We included everyone in the wedding and their SOs, parents, grandparents and siblings/SOs. We both have several siblings and all our grands are alive, so we ended up with a pretty large group.

We are only inviting parents, siblings, grandparents, bridal party, bridal party plus ones (including the flower girl and ring bearer and their parents.)

We are at 35 people. FH parents are also throwing our rehearsal dinner and I didn't want to invite all 60 OOT guests to the dinner which would change the cost greatly and we'd need a new venue to do it.

We may plan to invite OOT guests to a local bar afterwards to meet us for a drink if we get the venue 100% set up and aren't at the rehearsal dinner too late.

We are inviting everyone traveling from out of town on top of family and wedding party so currently planning around 150 people. Rented out a restaurant for four hours on Friday evening and doing food stations, passed appetizers, and open bar for 4 hours.

Ask him how much he'd like to pay, because that will dictate how many people you invite, since it sounds like you aren't overly concerned.

Also ask them if who they would like there- do they want OOT guests? Are they leaving it completely up to you?

Mine is just going to be anyone involved in the wedding itself, probably about 30 people including SOs. My FH's family isn't paying for it because they're actually paying for the Indian ceremony, so it's on us, and we want to keep it cheap-o lol.

We're including grandparents, wedding party, SO's, our parents and siblings. We're at 36 people.

We've invited immediate family, bridal party and their signficiant others, godparents, the officiant, one family flying in from out of town (coming to Boston from Indiana). So far we're at 45 guests so we opted out of a sit down plated dinner and went for a waterfront cocktail and appetizer party.

We invited immediate family, bridal party and SOs only. Wanted to keep it as small as possible.

We are inviting immediate family and our bridal party with their spouses/SO's. It's going to be around 50 people all together.

Last time I only invited those directly in the wedding who would walk the aisle.

We're inviting the wedding party, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles (some are out of town, so we just decided to include all of them), and 4 couples who are close family friends (one couple is hosting the wedding and reception at their home and one is playing music at the ceremony). We have around 45 people total.

Most my guests are out of town, so I'm not inviting them to the RD. If I did, it would be 140 at the RD, and 160 at the wedding so it would be awkward for the 20 I'm leaving out. We are only inviting parents, siblings, and wedding party + SOs. But it just depends on your budget and what you want. After the RD, we are going to either a local bar or getting a bigger hotel room suite so OOTG can stop by and say hi the night before the wedding.

Ours is limited to immediate family and wedding party and their dates. Total of about 30 people. Think of it as a mini reception tbh - the first step is coming up with an ideal guest list and cutting as needed to suit your FIL’s budget.

My wedding is in September and this whole invite to the shower and rehersal was my “to tackle” this week. The shower I could only have 50 and I tried to make that more of our friends. The rehersal was SO HARD! Because you’ve got all these people from out of town and family and your party and ugh! My head was spinning!! Finally I said enough is enough, the rehersal will be the people who are rehearsing. That totaled 45 people (including the ring bearer and flower girl(s) families) plus our immediate family members (if they aren’t in it). I gave that list to FH parents since they’re paying for it and the can add to it if they feel necessary.

We invited our parents, siblings + spouses, my grandmother (all other grandparents have passed), wedding party + spouses, and then all OOT guests, who were also all family, and we called it a welcome dinner instead of a rehearsal dinner. We had a total of 55 people, out of the 155 who RSVP'd yes to the wedding. We did not invite our officiants because we did not have an actual rehearsal, it was just the dinner.

We had it in a restaurant, but didn't rent out the whole place, so we just told them the max number of people we were expecting to give them an idea, and they said it was fine to cut or add from that number as it got closer. They asked for a more final number about a week before, but then said they would only charge us based on the number of entrees actually ordered on that day, which was awesome. So I'd write out your list, and then tell your FIL that the number could change, but here's an estimate.

My in-laws did our rehearsal dinner too. All of my in-laws were from out of town and we had the wedding in my hometown, which is not where my husband and I live either. My mother in law did come to my bachelorette and my bridal shower for my family. My mom, aunt, and grandma all traveled to the shower that my husbands family had. My mother in law and my aunt bonded because they both have multiple boys, sons in Texas and so on. My mother in law invited that aunt and her family but not the rest of,my aunts and uncles from out of town. No one complained, there were too many out of towners. The must haves on the list are the bridal party, immediate family, and readers in the ceremony.
On the othwr hand my cousin who moved to Texas is getting married in Texas this year. I was the first in our family to get married so we are all much more aware of etiquette. My mom told my aunt that we don't expect to come to the rehearsal dinner as we just went through all of that and we know everyone that is there for my cousin is traveling a significant distance. My aunt did say they will be having breakfast for the family the day after as a thank you but it isn't possible to host that many for a rehearsal.

The real decision maker on out of town guests at the rehearsal should be made based on how many people are coming from out of town.

I would prepare a list that includes everyone with a role in the wedding and their SO's or parents (in the case of flower girl or ring bearer), bride and groom, parents of each, siblings and SO's of each, grandparents if applicable, and officiant (who should be invited but will often decline unless they have a personal relationship with you) and their SO, if applicable.

That would be the minimum number of people. Give the list to FIL's and ask if there is anyone they want to add. It is not necessary to include OOT's.