Who Should You Invite to Your Wedding Rehearsal Dinner?

Once you decide you’re having a rehearsal dinner, you’re going to need to create a guest list. Your immediate family and your bridal party are the obvious first choices, but just how far should this guest list extend? Should you extend the invite to everyone who’s received a wedding invite?

Here are some guidelines that you can use when creating a rehearsal dinner guest list.

The Musts

If you want to keep your list small, stick to inviting your immediate family as well as your bridal party. You can also include your officiant on this list if you feel that’s important to you. And if anyone in your bridal party has a spouse or partner, they should be invited too.

Here is a breakdown:

– Yourselves
– Your parents and step-parents
– Your grandparents
– Your siblings and their spouses or fiancés
– Your wedding party and their spouses or fiancés – no ring no bring!
– Any guests coming from out of town who are staying over
– Your Officiant only if they have a relationship with your family

*Ok they don’t have to be engaged, but stick to serious committed partners and not someone they met 3 weeks ago

ProTip! You don’t need to invite your Officiant for anything more than the ceremony they have been contracted to lead. Keep in mind, you might be the only person or people your Officiant knows and asking them to stay for dinner with strangers when they can’t relax and be off the clock might not be comfortable for them. I only stay for wedding related events and meals if I know the family and feel it is a safe environment for me to be in (ie your uncle won’t corner me about religion etc), because not every group of friends and family are friendly and welcoming to strangers.

The Maybes

Now that you have the base of your guest list, you can decide whether you have enough budget and space to add more. From here, you can let any bridal party members who aren’t in serious relationships invite a plus-one. You can also send an invitation to any extended family members that you would really love to have there. It is said that if you invite some, you may have to invite them all but I don’t agree with that – you invite who YOU want to have sharing these special moments with you.

The Nice-to-Haves

Work colleagues and friends that you don’t see all too often don’t need to be at your rehearsal dinner, especially if it means spending additional budget that you don’t have, but if you do have the money to include more, this is a nice chance to gather and spend some time together.

Remember! Your rehearsal dinner doesn’t need to be as big as your wedding! Nor should it be!

In the end, if you feel bad about not inviting everyone, you can turn a dinner into a small welcome celebration that includes everyone, some cocktails, and appetizers rather than a big sit down meal.

Don’t forget to have your photographer there to grab all the special photos!

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