REHEARSAL DINNER

Who Attends

If space and/or finances are limited, only the members of the wedding party need to be invited. But, the guest list usually includes your attendants and the spouses of married attendants (or live-in partners), the immediate family on both sides (parents and siblings and their partners), parents of children in the wedding (young children are optional), and the officiant and his/her spouse (if they are well known to the host and hostess). If the musicians are personal friends they may also be invited. Most people also include out-of-town guests arriving for the wedding (or plan some other function for them to attend the night before the wedding). If you want to expand it, you can include grandparents and special aunts/uncles too.

Who Hosts and When

The groom's parents traditionally host the rehearsal dinner. But, most anyone can host it if the groom's parents do not. Invitations for the dinner can be sent after you have received RSVPs from out of town guests who you might want to include in the rehearsal dinner.The invitations can be word of mouth, by personal note, or by a printed invitation indicating the time and place of the dinner.

It is usually held the night before the wedding, directly following the rehearsal at the wedding site. If the wedding is going to be a morning or early afternoon affair, you could have the rehearsal and dinner a day or so before, so everyone is well-rested for the wedding day.

Where Held

It can be anywhere from a formal sit-down dinner in a nice restaurant to an informal buffet, or a backyard barbecue or lasagna party at someone's house.

Activities

The purpose of the rehearsal dinner is to have an opportunity to visit and relax with those closest to the bride and groom, so you can decide how many people that includes. This is also the occasion where most bridal couples give the gifts to their attendants. You could have slide shows or pictures of the bride and groom growing up placed on each table or displayed on an easel (which you could also display at the wedding reception site).