Rehearsal Dinner/Welcome Party

That's not true. The people invited to the rehearsal dinner are only your parents, siblings, BP with S/O's and anyone involved in the rehearsal. If you want to do a welcome party that's your choice, but don't end up throwing two weddings....

Thanks! When the lady told me that I was like how could we afford that? As for the welcome party, I definitely wanted something more casual and we are planning to host it at my parent's rental house.

We are doing a welcome dinner in lieu of the rehearsal dinner but it is going to be really laid back.

Delisa, I agree with Celia.... you probably have more than enough details and expenses to stress over and budget for, beyond the various traditions and etiquette that others try to impose upon you and YOUR wedding. Host a small, informal welcome party, if you wish....just don't let it distract you from the most important part, which is the actual wedding!

I'm in the same boat with 90% OOT guests so we're having two separate events. The rehearsal dinner is just for bridal party, their dates and immediate fam. After that, we're having Welcome Drinks for everyone. We're not fully hosting, first drink's on us then people are on their own. It's what we can afford and people are really looking forward to it!

We aren't doing a reversal dinner at all, or a reversal for that matter, so my FILs are hosting a non-rehersal lunch the day before the wedding, at a local favorite Vietnamese restaurant my FH and I love! Your could do a rehersal luncheon with just those Celia mentioned, and then a welcome party in the evening for everyone who wants to attend?

I've been in a few weddings where they have the rehearsal dinner, and tell OOT guests who come in that night to stop by for cocktails or something, but I've never heard of inviting all the OOT guests to the rehearsal dinner, and I definitely don't think this is something you should feel obligated to do. A casual welcome sounds like a nice happy medium if that's something you want to do, but just keep it minimal.

Most of our guests are also OOT so we decided to do a welcome dinner instead of a rehearsal dinner. However, don't feel pressured into doing this it's not necessary.

In most cases, especially if you have a good venue with experienced staff, you don't need a rehearsal at all. You make sure your processional order is together and typed out for your venue coordinator, show up, and bingo; there you go. It's walking and standing; a few well placed directions from your officiant and or coordinator will make it a snap.

If you want to do a casual thing at your parents', invite your BP for a bit earlier, give them presents, and go over last minute details, like where and when to show up the next day. Then have the OOT people and relax. I can honestly not think of one of my weddings that would have been better if we did a rehearsal.....

My FMIL is planning the rehearsal dinner and she INSISTED on inviting all OOT guests. She said it was "traditional." The venue can only hold 50 people so I don't know if she'll be able to swing that, but it's her event to plan so I'm not worrying.

All of our guest are OOT as well. We are doing a welcoming party and keeping it simple. My mother and grandmother are making all of fall favorites, we will have a snores bar, and a cash bar. We felt that if everyone is coming from so far that we wanted a way to thank them and get to spend more time with them then just on the wedding since I know that will be a blur. Instead of giving our bridal party their gifts at the dinner we are going all of their gifts left on their bed as they arrive at the bed and breakfast with a welcome note, a bottle of our homemade wine with a MA shaped cookie attached and a tag saying welcome to MA!

We also have mostly OOT guests, but we're keeping our rehearsal dinner to the BP, their SO's and one very close friend (who is traveling into town with one of my BMs.) so as to keep costs down.

We considered doing a welcome party. But, honestly, the reception is the party. For us, the rehearsal dinner is a way to spend extra time with some of the people closest to us.

We skipped the rehearsal dinner and just had a welcome party.

There were only two times my family was invited to the rehearsal dinner, as out of town guests. For the one, the food at the rehearsal was better than the wedding reception, which was kind of embarrassing.

For the other, the flight schedules were such that we had to fly-in a day early, and spend an extra night on a hotel. Definitely wouldn't do that again.

And then there's the issue of having to spend time in a room with relatives, who don't even talk to you ...

Thanks all for the advice! I seriously feel so much better about this!

We are doing something a little different due to a large number of out of town guests. So we are doing the more traditional rehearsal dinner with parents, grandparents, bridal party plus sig others (which includes siblings). Then we are actually having a very casual laid back thing at my parents house the day after our wedding. I had a friend who did this too, and it was really fun! It will literally just be a bbq kind of thing or we might just get pizza...just some extra time to see those who came from out of town before we leave!

Celia is so right. We are getting married out of state from where we currently live, so we have a lot of OOT guests/friends coming from where we live to our hometown where the wedding is.(6 hr drive distance) We are not having every out of towner at our RD, because yes, then it turns into a second reception! We are doing parents, BP and their spouses. The OOT guests are in a hotel rm block where they are surrounded by plenty of restaurants/stores and I gave them welcome bags loaded with goodies and info on the town so I dont think any of them expect to be going to the RD.

If time and budget allow, you could do a rehearsal lunch, rehearsal, casual/inexpensive welcome party.

As the aunt traveling from FL to PA, I've been invited to 3 welcome/rehearsal dinners (one was almost as big as the reception). I was happy to be included, but surprised it was not limited to wedding party.

We're in the same boat. We have our venue the whole weekend (it's a barn) so we're doing the rehearsal earlier in the day (around 2pm) and then having a small champagne toast with just the bridal party and VIPS. Then we're inviting all our out of towers (there's about 70 of them) to the venue for a cookout with hamburgers, cole slaw, potato salad, etc, and a kickball game.

At least 95% of our guest list is from out of town (actually out of state). We will NOT be doing a welcome party - it's just way too much money. In saying that, I really have no idea how many people will be coming to our wedding.

Our rehearsal/rehearsal dinner will just include the BP, their SO's, immediate family members (parents, grandma, siblings), those helping at the rehearsal (e.g. priest and the church wedding coordinator), plus anyone else that is involved with the wedding and also a guest (like my friend who will be singing a few songs at the reception and my aunt and uncle who are doing our hair and makeup). That is already about 40 people.

ETA: I pretty much second @Rebecca's response.