OT: Rehearsal dinner question
- Thread starter Doteman
- Start date
It all depends. Anyone staying in the hotel will get invited, out of town guests are invited, close family is invited, the wedding party is invited. If your birdesmaids / groomsmen have significant others than they should be included too. If your bridesmaids / groomsmen are bringing a random plus 1 as a date then you can potentially leave them out of the rehearsal dinner since there is a strong chance that the relationship may end at some point and that person will be in your pics forever.
People staying in the hotel?
Ive always figured it was for people in the wedding plus first order relatives (parents, siblings, children who arent in the wedding) and their significant others.
I mean people staying in the hotel and out of town guests plus everyone in the wedding and close relatives could end up being most of your wedding guests. And you are expected to feed them twice?
Typically if it is a semi-local wedding people only stay the night of the wedding and not for 2 days. If the wedding is 100 miles from where someone lives and they want to spend for 2 nights of a hotel then they may have earned their plate at the rehearsal dinner. For those traveling on a plane they will probably arrive a day early in case of delays and cancellations. These are folks who are spending more money for the wedding and typically get invited.
I am involved in a wedding this coming weekend that is 90 mins away from where most of the bride and groom's family live. They have about 150 wedding guests and only 35 or so at the rehearsal dinner.
I know of someone who had a wedding in Cape May where most of the wedding guests decided to go for 2 nights at the hotel. They did a buffet rehearsal dinner with a cash bar to accommodate more guests. That is an exception though since they had almost 75 people at the rehearsal dinner.
Rehearsal Dinner is after the rehearsal...Those that attend plus only close family go to the dinner. But yes, their significant other or date should be invited as well. The dates in no way have to be in any pictures...
This. A good idea is to have a quasi party somewhere to have all of the out of town guests come to meet there. They shouldn't be included in the dinner though.
not a bad idea- just tell the hotel guests that rehearsal dinner will be done by 10pm and everyone will be meeting after at the hotel bar or close by establishment. Leave it at that where there is no assumption that you are picking up the cost of that as well.
How about this question? Do the siblings of the groom, along with their spouses AND CHILDREN, get invited to the rehearsal dinner if they are not participants in the wedding ceremony? My sister is having one maid of honor and one best man. No others in the wedding party.
Siblings, yes, of course. Children, that's up to you. It will be late so my initial response would be no on kids
I thought the hotel guests thing was breakfast the morning after the wedding if they choose to get up and come with everyone.
The real "hotel guests thing" is the hotel bar after the rehearsal dinner.
It's always best to give bridesmaids an opportunity to drink for several hours before engaging in naked shenanigans.
as far as kids my experience is that it depends on family dynamics. Optimally you may not want kids at any wedding event but if you have siblings or close family / friends with children and they won't come because of babysitting issues then you may need to include them. You can try and hire a babysitter for both nights but each parent is different. I have one family member who doesn't trust any babysitters and only allows aunts, uncles, and grandparents to babysit. I think that is a little too much but that is their choice as a parent. Of course if there is a special needs child then you may need babysitters with special skills.
