Welcome party / post wedding brunch

Hi there We also have a lot of out of towners coming. I am trying by God's grace to do everything right as far as etiquette and hosting a wedding. I have entertained the idea of inviting all of the visitors to the "rehearsal dinner" and maybe join them for breakfast at the hotel they will be staying at the next morning before they leave, but dang! It has then turned into a 3 day ordeal and EVERYBODY'S tired. All of the visitors are FH's family. He doesn't seem much concerned about seeing them outside of the wedding day aside from his best man and his kids and wife. They will be joining us for dinner out the night before, but that's all. FH knows his family and if he's ok with this plan, so am I I guess in your case, it depends on how close you are with them. They may also just be tired from traveling and want to chill for the night before the big party! If you are very close to some of them, maybe set up a time to meet at a bar or restaurant for casual cocktails?

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I like this idea! I'm already running through the process in my head of trying to get all the way around the room to say 'hi' to everybody and eat and get the dancing started. It's either this cocktail party idea or just be at the front door for every person that arrives for cocktail hour (also, almost impossible). Thanks for the idea!

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This is a good idea! We have a small section of the hotel blocked off for our wedding. Only one event can be hosted there at a time and we have these awesome side rooms. They would be great for a little breakfast/brunch buffet before everyone leaves.

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Great way to look at this!...from the guests point of view. It might be hard enough just getting out of bed and getting to the car to go home. Lol!

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It might be worth it to just call and ask then! We obviously had to take care of the cost but our hotel was able to pretty much do the rest and so it took the planning away from me. My MOH asked to make the invite for that which I was fine with delegating to someone else. Then I will just included that in the invites of the individuals who will be invited to the brunch. However works best.

Definitely definitely not.

We had some out of towners too and hosted a welcome dinner for them Friday night before our Saturday wedding. We did the rehearsal that Tuesday night instead because our pastor wasn’t available the day before anyway.

We did end up dropping about 500 for the dinner, but I’m so glad we did it. It was nice to just relax for a while after a week of running. The wedding day went by so fast and even though we made a point to talk to everyone and it was only 40 people- I felt like people had spent so much and come all that way for just a few minutes of time. Some of our out of towners were in late or the next day and couldn’t make it- but I loved hanging out with everyone who could be there.

We didn’t do a brunch because we left for our honeymoon the night of the wedding (spent night at hotel then flew out) but some of our family did a brunch on their own at a restaurant to catch up.

Hope this helps!

*we had the welcome dinner at a restaurant we love- they did a little buffet for us and charged per head. They also did a photo booth for us which was fun! It was stress free!

Not necessary. I've been to weddings as an out of town guest and missed the welcome drinks because I was too tired. I've never heard of OOT guests attending rehearsal dinner before. My wedding is based in an urban area so we'll probably have welcome drinks and a Sunday brunch following the wedding.

Not necessary at all! Most weddings I attended as an out of town guest, I typically fly in the day before and out the next day unless it’s a destination wedding and I’ve converted it into my vacation lol. The only reason I’ve attended any of those events is when I’m in the wedding! And even then, I’m annoyed because I just want rest!

Thank you so much everyone I think their was definitely an overwhelming consensus of a no ( unless possible )

personally if if I were a guest the wedding day would be enough for me but I’m super introverted so I’m glad others said that too

Not necessary at all, but they can be fun and help to reduce stress on the day of. The reception is really meant to be a time to go around and talk to everyone, but really you're just going to want to dance and smile and be happy! This takes the pressure of because you can spend some more quality "catch up" time with guests the night before and after, so you don't seem rude if you skip over them at the reception. Or, do a receiving line (even though its old fashioned) and totally skip these extra events without the fear of not seeing everyone.