Rehearsal Dinner necessary?

It's a nice gesture but it doesn't have to be expensive or extravagant just because other people choose to do so. Many folks keep it simple with pizza and beer/sodas to keep costs under control. Also, you only invite those directly involved with the ceremony rehearsal anyway. Do what works for you in your budget.

Agree with Jana. Our venue has us doing a morning rehearsal so only those participating in the rehearsal (parents and bridal party) are going to go to the rehearsal brunch. My parents and FH’s parents wanted to host their own mini welcomes for each half of the family the night before to free up my fiancé and I and the bridal party to have some down time before the wedding. I thought that was really nice of them and a great idea since we have a lot of out of towners coming.

Rehearsal dinners can be whatever you make them! I've been to rehearsal dinners at fancy restaurants with an open bar, and rehearsal dinners with pizza and beer at someone's house. Both were enjoyable! Some people invite all out of town guests, others invite just the wedding party, their significant others, and immediate family. Or you don't have to have one at all. So many choices! We decided to invite all out of town guests to ours but since we had a limited budget to work with, we had a few appetizer stations and a choice of wine or beer, and it was pretty informal.

If you have a rehearsal, you do need to feed people after. It does not have to be a big thing. My ILs hosted a family dinner at their apartment (though it was a very *large* family dinner, as we had a bigger BP).

As others have said, it can totally be a pizza thing. The rehearsal dinner is best confined to immediate families, BP (and SOs of BP), and the officiant.

If you have a rehearsal, a rehearsal dinner is a necessity. As others have mentioned, it can be as formal or as casual as you’d like.

I did it because they all took their time to come and rehearse. But you don’t need to do anything super formal. You can do something informal.

As others said, you have to feed the people that came to the rehearsal. Some people choose to invite out of town guests to the dinner, but it isn't necessary. Your plan of dinner with just the wedding party and immediate family is perfectly fine.

We’re just doing ours with our immediate family and bridal party. We are staying at the venue the whole weekend so we plan to do our rehearsal with our officiant then afterwards probably get pizza and wings with our family and bridal party. So ours is very casual.

We Aren't Having One, We Don't Feel It's Necessary And Aren't Willing To Spend Even More Money.

If you having a rehearsal, then yes it is necessary to have a dinner following. I think you are confusing the rehearsal dinner and welcome party though. A rehearsal dinner is generally just the bride & groom, parents, wedding party and their significant others, and siblings who aren't in the wedding party & their significant others. A welcome party is where everyone on your guest list is invited. A welcome party definitely isn't necessary. We didn't have one. We had the rehearsal dinner then went back to our hotel (our wedding venue). Some of our guests arrived the night before the wedding and were hanging out at the bar within the hotel so my husband I stopped by to say hi then went our own separate ways since we didn't spend the night before the wedding together.

We have played this back in forth in our minds. We decided we will not do a full rehearsal dinner but rather heavy apps and drinks (we're having a destination wedding) - If you're present and checked in you're welcomed to join us, if not, we'll see you the next day. We opted not for the full rehearsal because of the minimum F&B required and ultimately less expensive to just hang out at the Tiki bar and order apps.

I think it is etiquette to have a rehearsal dinner if you are having people rehearse. It doesn't have to be huge and fancy, though. Although mine is postponed to next year, I think we had 25 people tops invited including ourselves, just bridal party + partners and immediate family.

Our wedding is on Sunday, but our venue has a Saturday wedding, so we can't rehearse the day before like normal. And the wedding is in NY, but we live in MD, so we can't do an earlier rehearsal because we won't be there. We're renting a private room in a steakhouse for three hours. We'll do the rehearsal in that room for the first hour and then do a seated dinner only for those in the rehearsal for the second and third hours. It'll only be about 16 people.

I am doing a game theme rehearsal dinner in my grandparents back yard. They have a big house across my hall. Going to do burgers and hot dogs and than have corn hole, jenga, yard-zee, and have a bunch of different beers that way everyone can relax and hangout before
The big day!

Do what works for you and your budget.

I've been to 4 rehearsal dinners one with Pizza, 2 extravagant over the top everyone invited. (mini wedding) And one where they had only bridal party not even parents and did taco bar it was tons of fun.

I would host some kind of meal for your parents and the people involved in the wedding ceremony.

Thank you so much ladies! I will definitely be hosting a lunch or dinner with just my wedding party and the parents.

If you have a rehearsal then you need to host something afterwards thanking the people for coming; it doesn't have to be big, elaborate, or expensive. It just needs to have food and drink appropriate to the time of day. Invite the people involved in the rehearsal, their SOs, and immediate family; that's all that needs to be invited.

I’d feed the people participating in the rehearsal. There is no point in anyone but parents, bridal party, officiant, and vendors being at a rehearsal dinner. I’m not sure when it became a thing to invite tons of people to a rehearsal dinner, it’s not a party lol, it’s a rehearsal for the party. The food is just a token of appreciation to the people who took time out of their day to come prep for your wedding.