Who’s coming to your rehearsal dinner?

I understand how you feel. We had a little drama with my FH’s mom in the beginning of planning. All is well between us now, but she avoids talking to us about the wedding.

View Quoted Comment That sounds like a lot of fun!

View Quoted Comment I understand how you feel. We had a little drama with my FH’s mom in the beginning of planning. All is well between us now, but she avoids talking to us about the wedding.

The only people coming to ours is our wedding rehearsal party. Which includes my four children ages 18-11, his 11 year old niece (along with both her parents). His brother who’s grown. His mom, my mother, my step grandmother, minister, his aunt/uncle who’s coming out of town (oh their also paying for their own dinner). About a total of 22 people. We’re only having people who are directly involved with the wedding party.

My sister/MOH, my 2 daughters/bridesmaid and fg, my bff/other bm, the BM and his gf (the reason shes coming is bc they're both from out of town and have a long distance relationship so they dont see each other a lot) and our 4 sons/gm and rb. We *might* have the parents there so they can practice going down the isle and make sure our songs are long enough. We're literally only having people that are in the wedding there minus the one exception

The only ones who are mandatory are those who are participating in the rehearsal and their SOs. If you skip the rehearsal, you don't need a rehearsal dinner at all. Your officiant can just tell everyone the order to walk and where to stand, a few minutes before the ceremony.

We are only inviting our parents, grandparents, wedding party, & their significant others.

Our bridal party and close family

We’re having the wedding party and their plus ones, parents on both sides, flower girls, ring bearer (their parents are all in the wedding) and the officiant. Already with that we’re over 30 people so we’re just keeping it to that amount.

Nobody unless your officiant is a long time clergy or personal friend . But remember that for a formal sit down dinner, couples not individuals are invited for any wedding party who have spouses or SO. Grandparents, and brothers and sisters (and SO) of B & G may be invited, but very often do not attend. Rehearsal dinners are very often held one or 2 weekends before the wedding, rather than immediately after the rehearsal, if the wedding is within a short distance of home area, and only get pushed to the night before the wedding when everyone is traveling and in hotels. Especially church weddings, where rehearsals for local people are often half an hour on a weekday early evening. And wedding party who are a long ways away do not usually bother with the actual rehearsal. But if your dinner is at a different but more convenient time, like an earlier weekend, more will attend the dinner because it is convenient for SO. And when at an earlier time, no one is tempted to insist on inviting out of town guests. So local, versus hotel away from home, makes a big difference. And with a local weekday rehearsal, you can just gather local people, filling in others informally before the wedding. Then all go home, with RD the previous or following weekend.

Wedding party, our parents (probably only my Dad will actually show since he’s paying), our OOT guests. About 15 people total, I think.

Wedding party and their guests

Parents, grandparents, siblings and their spouses

Nieces and nephews

And some of FHs out of town family

All in all we're looking at about 30-40 people.

I'm only inviting wedding party, their spouses, and our parents.

We have a total of 8 people for the rehearsal dinner. Granted, we have a small wedding party (I just have a matron of honor and he has two best men) and they’re all family!

We will have 65 people at our rehearsal dinner. Wedding party + significant others + kids, parents, aunts/uncles/cousins. I would say mandatory are parents & wedding party + SOs.