Rehearsal Dinner

I figured it is the wedding party and that's it.

Are the siblings helping out a lot? Are they in the wedding party? If not, I'd tell your dad, "This is an special time for the wedding party to be together before tomorrow's chaos. I just want to focus on us". It can get costly if you are doing something formal.

I personally agree with your logic so would not include your aunts/uncles. We are having bridal party and their significant others and immediate family only. As you stated, we don’t want to be throwing a second wedding!

The rehearsal dinner is only for those directly involved in the ceremony who are attending the rehearsal: bridesmaids, groomsmen, officiant (they typically decline but is still proper to extend an invite), flower children, musicians, ushers, etc. Their significant others are invited to the dinner but singles don’t need the plus ones in this case. Some include parents, especially if they are involved in the ceremony.

Out of the area guests are not invited.

They generally are very casual events. Some brides will go as fancy as a sundress but many will wear a nice tshirt and jeans. Also the menu is equally casual more often than not, with pizza and beer/soda rather than a super fancy dinner of the same formality as the wedding itself.

The wedding parties I’ve been in have always included the wedding party, readers, etc. for the rehearsal dinner only. We are, however, expanding our list because our rehearsal dinner price includes 40 people so we want to get our money’s worth. Because of this, it will include FH’s siblings and his grandparents.

I was always told immediate family, bridal party, anyone assisting, and out of town guests, but over 70% of our wedding is out of town guests, so we nixed that idea real quick haha. We’re just having our immediate family and our bridal party/their plus ones. Like everyone else, not throwing two weddings here!

The rehearsal dinner can be just for those who participated in the rehearsal. My future in-laws are paying for dinner and insisted that every out of town guest and those participating in the rehearsal is invited. That’s 55 people out of our 105 invited guests. 😳 crazy if you ask me.

View Quoted Comment Omg thank you all! I was feeling crazy. But def don’t want a second wedding lol I’m going to stick with my first mind and just bridal party and immediate family.

Don't forget spouses,boy(girl)friends of the WP and siblings.

We only invited the bridal party, immediate family, and anyone else who actually needed to rehearse. (We're not having a ceremony this year, but we invited anyone who agreed to be part of it.) Some relatives objected to that short list, but I said that if every out of town guest was invited, I wouldn't go to it, so we stuck with the smaller list.

My in laws pretty much bullied us into having the bigger list and I'm still salty about how they acted. Have the smaller one.

I was thinking of only inviting the bridal party and immediate family but, my fiancé wants to invite all the out of town aunts, uncles and cousins coming to the wedding. His dad (who is paying for the rehearsal dinner) agrees so it’s going to be a lot. Some battles are not worth fighting. I’m letting them handle the invite, venue, food and drinks.

Rehearsal dinner is typically wedding party and anyone in the wedding, and their SOs. So usually parents, bridesmaids, groomsmen, officiant, parents of children involved, anyone doing a reading, etc. I think its also pretty normal to include immediate family (siblings) that may not be in the wedding.

When all out of town guests are invited, a welcome dinner typically replaces the rehearsal dinner, but the rehearsal/practice still usually happens before out-of-town guests arrive.

Just sticking with BP and some immediate family. 13 in all. Don’t want to get too crazy with it because unfortunately it’s the day before my wedding.

View Quoted Comment

But do spouses and BF/GF really need to be there if they are taking part in the wedding? They'd just be standing around/in the way while we're doing walk-throughs.

View Quoted Comment

Yea. I don't want to hat everyone later.

View Quoted Comment

Same. I'm trying to keep in under 50 people because we invited 250 people. I don't really think we NEED everyone there just because it's polite.

View Quoted Comment They may join you at dinner only if you prefer. Many officiants hold closed door recitals. Spouses, SO, need not be invited to the most casual RD, or those at odd times like Tues Pizza lunch after an 11:30 am rehearsal. Traditional etiquette, the requirement of inviting couples not just participants comes with the formal rules of a formal sit down dinner. Less formal, and you may do as you please.

I am personally not having one at all. But I would say i agree with everyone that just the bridal party and immediate family.

I really dont want no rehearsal dinner but I know that we have to eat so i would just say wedding party. Our parents if they wanted to attend and everyone else will see you at the wedding

View Quoted Comment Yes that's what I mean how cost will run over but we will try to sit together but pay individual bills of our own we paid enough of money