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The traditional rehearsal dinner is becoming passé, due to its limited guest list that often leaves people feeling excluded. The newest trend is to throw a wedding welcome party, either instead of or in addition to, a rehearsal dinner. These are all of the things that you will need to know to throw a great welcome party before your wedding.
The rehearsal dinner was meant to be an intimate gathering of the bride and groom’s immediate family and wedding party. The idea was that it literally followed the rehearsal, and included the same cast of characters. This was fine when weddings were hometown affairs, and most of the guests were only a few minutes away from the church.
As families have become more far-flung and destination weddings have become more popular, however, the idea of such a small rehearsal dinner has become problematic. Brides and grooms were left with a dilemma: should they invite all of the out-of-town guests and end up with a rehearsal dinner as large as their wedding? Or should they restrict the rehearsal dinner to their closest relatives, the bridal party, and their spouses, leaving everyone else out in the cold? There is really no easy answer to this question, and thus the wedding welcome party was born.
The idea of a wedding welcome party is to invite all of the wedding guests to join you for a celebration the night before the wedding. This party can be held instead of a rehearsal dinner, or after the dinner, either on the same evening or on the one following the formal dinner. For instance, a couple could have their rehearsal on a Thursday afternoon, followed by a rehearsal dinner for only the traditional small group. The next evening, they could have a welcome party to which all guests are invited. A variation would be to have an early rehearsal dinner, followed by a dessert party for everyone on the same night.
The point of a welcome party (besides welcoming your guests, of course) is to allow everyone to get to know each other in an informal setting before the wedding. There is something about the informal nature of the wedding that lends itself to easy conversation with new faces more readily than at a buttoned-up wedding reception, when everyone is feeling more formal in their fancy dresses and jewelry. Another advantage to having a welcome party is that it allows the bride and groom to see more of friends and family who live far away.
The welcome party can be any style of event that you like, but it is generally not a formal seated dinner. If you want to throw an elegant event, then a cocktail party in a stylish wine bar would be very chic. You could certainly go more casual, with a backyard barbeque or a picnic in a park. Ideally, you are creating an atmosphere where your guests will feel free to mix and mingle, which is why it is best to avoid a seated dinner.
You will want to issue invitations to the welcome party to guests as soon as they R.s.v.p. to your wedding. It will help them to plan for it when scheduling their travel plans. Since the welcome party can be anything from a fancy cocktail soiree to a casual get-together on the beach, it is important that your invitation makes clear what the style of the party will be. That way you will not have a guest stuck wearing a silk dress with her best wedding jewelry at a clambake, or a man wearing his jeans at an elegant event.
The wedding welcome party is an idea whose time has come. As guests put in more effort to travel from far and wide to attend weddings, it is only right that they should be included in the pre-wedding festivities. The gracious gesture of a welcome party will put all of your guests at ease and make them particularly glad to have made the trip to your wedding.
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Source by Bridget Mora
