Rehearsal dinner/day after brunch invitations?

The Rehearsal dinner will just be your bridal party right? Could you announce at the beginning of the rehearsal. And maybe announce day after brunch at the reception?

We just called to invite people to the rehearsal and dinner. Bridesmaids, groomsmen, siblings, parents, aunts/uncles, grandparents, and applicable significant others.

These printed RD invitations just keep popping up on pinterest and instagram. They are not necessary. In fact, they're just another needless expense. The VIPs who are invited to the RD should be contacted by phone.

As for the day-after brunch, if your parents are hosting it, they're in charge of the invitations, whether that means calling people or sending them inexpensive, pre-printed invitations.

Thanks everyone! I wasn't sure if it was impolite to just call to invite the BP and significant others to the RD. Looks like it'll be fine for me to just call them, its only 35 people anyways so its not a huge list. The brunch, on the other hand, will have 115 people invited. Obviously not everyone would come but I'd like them to have the option so our families can spend more time together before they have to fly home. For that it sounds like a separate mailed invitation is best. My and I are hosting it along with my parents.

We have our venue from Friday at noon to Sunday at two and are having all events there. So we need actual counts for the day. We are inviting the same people (wedding party, parents, grandparents, other immediate family, significant others and out of town guests) and having two separate invitations to go in with the ceremony/reception one and RSVP card. Although we will do the RSVP for the rehearsal dinner and brunch on different lines so they don't necessarily have to come to both if they are going home straight from the wedding. Per our venue we cannot have more than 50 people any other day besides the wedding or it's an up charge.

Also, we had to include the oot guests because pretty much all of them are my family and are staying at our house or my mom's house, so we didn't want it to seem rude to make them be there all by themselves.

I had the same question earlier except it's a beach bonfire instead of a brunch. I was told to do evites or phone calls for rehearsal and dinner. As for the brunch I would say if it's a lot of people you may want to just send invitations. I am not sure why everyone is against an extra insert into the wedding invitation for those in the wedding but it doesn't seem to be proper I guess. It's hard because it means in addition to following up with what I am guessing will be 50 people who don't RSVP for the wedding, I'll also be calling all the rehearsal people (13 families) to let them know about the rehearsal and dinner and hoping they write it down so I don't have to worry about them forgetting. At least if it's an insert or an invite they have it in writing.

I don't know how people do this and work full time honestly.

Just call people to invite them if you don't want to send invites.

Please, please don't ever announce an invitation at your reception (or any party) unless the whole room is invited. If you're only inviting out-of-town guests to the brunch, it would be incredibly rude to announce it at the reception.

@Faith_D that's a lot of guest lists to keep track of!

@Erin Wood I guess with so many inserts the invitation could get cluttered and heavy for postage? I think I'll add a tab to my Excel spreadsheet to keep track of RD phone calls and brunch RSVPs. Another list! haha

@Elizabeth yea no I would never do an announcement like that to a crowd that isn't all invited that would be so tacky and rude!

@Alexandra!! You got that right! I already have tabs for all the events. It'll be useful with keeping track of who I have called. I really hope people remember to show up.

Geez; why does this all have to be so complicated? You call your bridal party and let them know dinner will follow at X restaurant.

For the day after brunch, (which is sorry, kinda unnecessary) whoever is hosting it should just send out simple invites.

I can think of about two people that I'd want to spend three events with.......

@Alexandra, I know! It's a lot of people, but all of my family, except my mom, live on the east coast. I want to be able to spend as much time possible with them . Hopefully with our coordinator everything will run smoothly it'll just be a weekend of fun and not stress!

Fair enough Mrs. Fall, but it does seem like a lot, for everyone.

My rehearsal dinner is a very informal dinner and is really for those staying the night before the wedding, so we decided to just use an evite.

If you are having any welcome baskets for your OOT guests, you could include a small itinerary or information for them featuring local amenities and any scheduled brunches, dinners or group activities through the weekend events. You can also include a small notation in your ceremony programs or make an announcement at the reception for the day after brunch.

@Celia - Although it may seem like an unnecessary expense, printed reminders are always helpful for traveling guests.

We did separate invitations with a request to email or call/text rehearsal dinner RSVPs. We invited 60 (we have lots of kids in the wedding and we included OOT guests) so calling each would've been too much

I have been wondering the same thing...We a good amount of family coming in the day before the wedding...We are renting out a winery for our rehearsal dinner because we will have about 30-35 guests and I thought it would be nice to put all the event details on a separate card and include it when invites go out.

I will have them call or email me to RSVP for the rehearsal dinner...this way they have all the info, address, hours, etc and can plan ahead.

We called everyone personally for the rehearsal dinner (just 12 of us).

We had a picnic the day after the wedding for mainly out of town guests. I made up cards (just printed from MSWord on cardstock, quarter panels) and handed them out at the wedding.

@Celia- for me it's more than just wedding party. It's parents, which for me is 4 phone calls since everyone is divorced, officiant (friend), friend who is doing a reading, my aunt who is a host, grandparents and then WP. It gets to be a lot.

We're doing brunch as well and I actually put a line on the response card asking how many would be attending brunch. Ours is by person so I can't just hope a certain amount would come. It's actually working out great and it's only one response card to worry about for people.