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.

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 invite to any extended family members that you would really love to have there. Just keep in mind that if you invite some, you may have to invite them all.

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. Your rehearsal dinner doesn’t need to be as big as your wedding.

In the end, if you feel bad about not inviting everyone, you can turn a dinner into a small welcome celebration that includes everyone. Don’t forget to have your photographer there to grab a few special photos.