Who should be invited to a Rehearsal Dinner?

2006bride Posted: Jul 18, 2005 09:24 AM

Who should be invited to a Rehearsal Dinner?

Hi all,

My fiance and I are having a bit of trouble figuring this one out... Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

We are debating how many people we should invite without turing our Rehearsal Dinner (RD)into a mini-wedding. Our wedding is at noon on a Sunday, so we are having our RD on Saturday early evening around 5pm. We have a large bridal party of 16 + their dates means 32. Then we also have large immediate families, adding on about 15 more people. So now we are up to 47 people. Can we cut it there? We have MANY out of town guests and if we invite all of them including Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins, we are around 100 people. Should we just cut it at 47? Or are most of you inviting Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and OOT guests?

HELP ME!!!! THANKS GIRLS!

jes81276 Posted: Jul 18, 2005 09:25 AM

Re: Who should be invited to a Rehearsal Dinner?

I'm not inviting out of town guests....it would get crazy; like you said a mini-wedding. They will see you the next day

M&LSept1606 Posted: Jul 18, 2005 09:29 AM

Re: Who should be invited to a Rehearsal Dinner?

this is one of the reasons I don't think we're having a rehersal dinner.

There isn't too much to reherse, and it'll be too big.

I think it should just be you and the bridal party w/parents.

SuzBride Posted: Jul 18, 2005 09:33 AM

Re: Who should be invited to a Rehearsal Dinner?

Posted by 2006bride

Can we cut it there? We have MANY out of town guests and if we invite all of them including Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins, we are around 100 people. Should we just cut it at 47? Or are most of you inviting Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and OOT guests?

HELP ME!!!! THANKS GIRLS!

Since you have such a large family, I would cut it to immediate family and bridal party. I am inviting OOT guests (but there aren't many that will be able to attend since rehearsal dinner will prob. be Wed/Thurs night before), but alot of the members of my bridal party are dating one another or are immediate family (so just Bridal party and immediate family with dates would be 20 or 22).

Princessmaris Posted: Jul 18, 2005 09:42 AM

Re: Who should be invited to a Rehearsal Dinner?

This is a great question...

Do children (like ring bearer, jr. bridesmarid, flower girl) get invited to the rehersal dinner...(i think so??) but then you have to invite their parents...????

I wasnt gonna do BP with guests to the RD... but my MOH is Rys sister... and his mother insists that her boyfriend (whoever that may be at the time) come...

This is sooooo confusing!

SuzBride Posted: Jul 18, 2005 09:54 AM

Re: Who should be invited to a Rehearsal Dinner?

I read this on another website:

Who gets invited?

Invite your entire wedding party and their significant others, children attendants and their parents, your officiant and his or her spouse and your immediate family. It is not required for you to invite out of town guests to this celebration but it is highly recommended. Your out of town guests will feel more welcomed when they are included in your festivities and it will give them a chance to meet the other important people in your life in a more intimate informal setting. If there are too many out of towners to accommodate try holding a different kind of party for them like a day after the wedding breakfast or brunch. Try to limit your guest list so that this party doesn't take on a life of it's own, you don't want to upstage the main event. 10-25 guests are average for this type of party.

candb Posted: Jul 18, 2005 10:03 AM

Re: Who should be invited to a Rehearsal Dinner?

I think that if you're having it at a restaurant, you should cut the out of towners. With that many people, it will be crazy. If you want to invite everyone, a RD at a house would be better.

cjb88 Posted: Jul 18, 2005 10:09 AM

Re: Who should be invited to a Rehearsal Dinner?

I think you are fine with cutting it there also.

We are having bridal party, and close family (which includes my aunts and uncles, but not his, because he isnt close with them...) most of my family is OOT anyway... but we arent inviting all OOT guests... it would just be way too much!

lauren16 Posted: Jul 18, 2005 10:29 AM

Re: Who should be invited to a Rehearsal Dinner?

We have a very similar situation and my parents wanted ALL out of town guests (family, and there are a bunch) invited to the RD. This was the big thing that I put my foot down about and said no. This is done by the groom's side and they have no say in this. It will be the night before the wedding and we want it to be calm enough, not a mini-wedding, etc. I will see everyone the day of the wedding, and can even stop by the hotel to hang out after the RD if i want. This gives people time to travel on friday and not have to rush to make the RD. I'm sure everyone has mixed feelings and some people might be annoyed that they're not being invited...but you can't make everyone happy so start with yourself:)