Rehearsal/Welcome Dinner Invites?

How did you guys get the word out for your rehearsal/welcome dinners? Did you include a card in the invitation? Did you send out a separate invite? Did you send a letter to all those who responded yes letting them know about it?

I want to get going on my invites but since I haven't decided 100% about the details (when, where, who, what, how...) I am hesitating having them printed.

I know if we were doing a normal RD with just family and the wedding party then there would be separate invites... but since everyone who's invited to the wedding how do I word it?

I'm thinking I might wait until I know who's coming... but what if it's too late by then?

Hey Kash,

Here is how we did it. We printed very cutesy Welcome Dinner invitations and mailed them to everyone we knew was coming plus anyone who was a Maybe. We did not send them to anyone who was definitely NOT coming.

We sent them about one week after we sent the wedding invitation, so that they wouldn't come on the same day, but when people logged into the website to RSVP, they had hopefully seen both invites by then.

This is just one way you could do it, but it worked well for us I think.

I made the rehearsal dinner invites myself and included them with the invitation so everyone knew they were invited to both events. For an RSVP to the reherasal dinner, I asked for an e-mail RSVP (as opposed to returning the cards with the wedding invites) so I could get a good e-mail list for those who were coming. This worked out really well. Since you have a website, you could ask people to register on the website and post rehearsal dinner details when you're more sure of time, location, etc.

I was lazy...i did not do invites for the welcome dinner.

i posted it on our website with a place to RSVP. Then we would send emails to our guests that we updated the website with welcome dinner information or whatever.

we also put it in our welcome letter.

I don't plan to send a separate invitation, but will have the information included on the itinerary I send my guests a couple weeks ahead of time. I want my real invitations to be formal, so I don't want additional enclosures, but I still want some sort of announcement about it ahead of time. I've also been contemplating a bi-monthly newsletter to update people on our progress, keep them excite, and perhaps sway them to actually BOOK A ROOM! Whew! Sorry, don't know what came over me there...

I noticed a lot of you did or are doing welcome dinners. Is it rude not to? I though we would instead host a party boat cruise? I'm not sure yet.

i think you're not obligated to do anything but the wedding. everything else is truly "extra." a boat cruise sounds like a wonderful idea.

Thanks Maria Elena. My family loves to party, and when we've traveled in the past we always book this type of activity. I think they would enjoy it and if i remember correctly they usually serve a (very) simple lunch on the cruise.