Rehearsal Dinner

Yes, you need to formally invite guests to the rehearsal dinner. Typically, the rehearsal dinner is for everyone involved in the rehearsal plus their significant others/dates. Immediate family (parents and siblings) are also usually included. Outside of that, you are not required to invite every out of town guest if you do not want to.

Thanks! I didn't realize I'd have to send out another set of invitations. Do people usually include those in the same envelope as the wedding invites? We already have immediate family on the list but there were some aunts and uncles and cousins I was unsure about.

View Quoted Comment We honestly just used evite for the rehearsal dinner invitations. The rehearsal dinner isn't as formal as the wedding, so you can get away without using printed invitations. If you want to include the aunts/uncles/cousins, you can. We actually invited all out of town guests, so we had about 40 people, and our wedding was 115. However, if you want to keep numbers down, you can keep it to just immediate family and bridal party.

We included an additional insert in our invitation suite for those invited to the rehearsal dinner. But I've also been invited to rehearsal dinners via Evite before. We decorated, but you certainly don't have to. We also invited all out of town guests but many people choose to just invite the wedding party and immediate family to the rehearsal dinner.

You don't need formal invitations sent in the mail, but i would at least send an email or evite to those invited. We invited everyone who was involved in our ceremony: parents/grandparents, bridal party, readers, musicians. My IL's hosted at a restaurant so they didn't decorate, but I've been to others like yours and there were not decorations and it was fine!

I don’t think you have to decorate necessarily unless you want to, and you don’t have to send out formal invites either, but I would definitely send out some type of invitation so they know where to meet and when for the rehearsal dinner

Wow. I am keeling it simple. I verbally told the people who need to be at the rehearsal the info and texted it to them and said we are providing pizza for dinner that night. 15-20 people

We’re not inviting all the out of town guests- only those directly involved in the wedding. Wedding party & their partners, parents, us & the officiant. We’re not decorating & we’ll be bringing our thank you gifts for them.

A rehearsal dinner is very casual. Invites are by word of mouth to those involved in the ceremony only (bridesmaids/groomsmen/parents and officiant) and their significant others. Do not invite anyone else as this is not the reception. Decorating is unnecessary. The menu is super casual: pizzas and sodas typically or casual Chinese takeout/Mexican food. Any of those can be delivered in large pans to feed a crowd.

We will including rehearsal dinner inserts along with our invitations for the people invited, and when guests RSVP to our wedding, those invited to the rehearsal dinner will also RSVP for that as well. We will be inviting around 50 guests to our rehearsal dinner, and it will be held in a nice restaurant. We do not intend to decorate at all, since it will be in a restaurant. If your guest list for the whole wedding is 50, then I would limit your rehearsal dinner to the wedding party + family only.

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Wow, we must come from very different parts of the country! I think I've been to 25 rehearsal dinners and I can't ever remember attending a casual one. For me, they've all been in restaurants or other nice venues. I personally don't think there are 'rules' as to how fancy or casual a rehearsal dinner should be. Rehearsal dinners are what the people hosting decide to make of them. I'm in Atlanta by the way

I sent out invites for it but didn’t decorate

DH emailed everyone about the rehearsal dinner as an invite.

It was at his parents' place, with a family dinner atmosphere, and I don't think they decorated at all.

We had our BP, officiant, and SOs, and my parents.

Really, it can be a very chill thing.