Rehearsal Dinner - Who all does the grooms parents pay for?

Traditionally, the groom's parents pay for the rehearsal dinner - which is not necessarily a formal event. It can be pizza or a nice meal at their home, or dinner at a restaurant or private dining room in a hotel.

the rehearsal dinner is not to be a "pre-reception", but simply a way to make sure everyone at the working rehearsal is fed before they go home. Rehearsals are often scheduled after many come out of work, and you don't want your most important workers to be foraging for food late the night before the wedding.

keep it simple, and make sure everyone is fed. If you only have the people who need to be there, it shouldn't be attended by that many people in the first place - the officiant, if clergy, will just go home, leaving the wedding party, the bridal couple and the parents.

The parents are not automatically responsible for ANY costs in the wedding, including the rehearsal dinner. So if they haven't offered to pay, then you don't ask them to pay for anything. You set a budget and then you plan some sort of meal or refreshments that that budget can accommodate. If you cannot afford to feed the rehearsal guests, then don't do a rehearsal at all ... or do a quick rehearsal the morning of the wedding. A wedding isn't rocket science and I'm sure you can figure it out without a rehearsal, if need be, unless there are complex religious/cultural rituals involved.

If the groom's parents HAVE offered to pay for the rehearsal dinner, then you need to sit down with them and talk about how much they want to offer you, and then plan a dinner around that budget. Either make it work with the budget they've given you, or chip in some of your own money to host a larger event.

You wait for them to give you an amount, and then you make your plans and add your own money if you wish ... that's how you handle this.

The guests NEVER pay for themselves. You and/or anyone who's offered to host the event must pay for everyone's meal. If you are on a tight budget then you may throw a casual dinner - take them out for pizza, sandwiches, burgers, or barbecue. Or take them back to your home for homemade lasagna, salad, and bread. Or throw a mid-afternoon/late evening event and just provide cake, fruit, and coffee. Alcohol is always optional but you should at least serve water, soda, and hot coffee.

Traditionally, the rehearsal dinner guests should include whomever you're asking to rehearse with you, plus their spouse/fiance(e)/steady significant other/date to the wedding (if you are inviting single people with dates). Typically the people at the rehearsal are:

The couple getting married

Parents, step-parents

Bridal party members

Children in the wedding party, plus their parents

Your siblings and possibly your grandparents

Ceremony officiant

Friends you are asking to do a reading or perform music in the ceremony (no need to invite hired musicians, though)

Ushers

My mother in law had the rehearsal dinner at her house, she made most of the food. Most rehearsal dinners where like that. I been to backyard bbq as well as going to someone house and having pizza.

Traditionally the grooms parents pay, but to day most of the time the couples pay for some or all the wedding, including this.

Any one that goes to the Rehearsal.

If you are having readers or singers or anyone else doing something at the ceremony, needs to be at the rehearsal, they are invited.

Siblings and spouse/dates.

An rehearsal dinner does not need to be fancy or at an restaurant.

Who is hosting it, pays for everyone. If it's the grooms parent or the couple or anyone else.

If the groom's parents are hosting the rehearsal dinner, then they need to pay for everyone who is invited. This means the bride and groom, the bridal party, the bride and groom's immediate families (if they aren't in the bridal party), any out of town guests and anyone else who makes the list for whatever reason - plus their dates.

If the grooms parents are hosting the rehearsal dinner, they pay for everyone attending.

That is "traditionally" in the modern era most couples pay for the wedding and the rehearsal dinner their selves. If either set of parents offer to host it entirely or offer to pay towards it, it is fine for the couple to accept but shouldn't be an expectation.

I don't know what the right thing to do would be but I know that I am supposed to be in a wedding next month. However, I, along with the rest of the wedding party, have been asked to give $25 each to go towards the rehearsal dinner. That amount multiplied by the number of people in the wedding comes to over $300!!!! I've never heard of such a thing and it almost makes me want to drop out of the wedding

It is "traditional" that the grooms parents pay for the entire dinner for all guests. This is also traditionally just the people in the wedding party (bridesmaids, groomsmen, ushers, soloist, or whomever) and their spouses. Today, it seems everything is not traditional. It is up to the bride and groom and their parents (if the parents are paying for anything) to decide on who pays how much and for what.

My parents paid for the whole thing but gave nothing toward the wedding. I would have been happy with the rehearsal dinner as our reception but my wife's parents pulled out all the stops for the wedding so my parents did the same for the rehearsal dinner.

When my son got married, my ex-husband & his wife, at their own insistence, paid the entire cost of the rehearsal dinner, which was held at the same venue where the wedding was going to take place the following night. As far as alcoholic beverages: You can have either an "open" bar or a "closed" bar. My son had a "closed" bar. Because I was the mother of the groom, my drinks & those of the wedding party & the bride's parents were paid for. The other guests were given tickets entitling them to 2 free drinks. After that, they had to pay for their own drinks. Of course, you don't have to have a bar at all, if you don't want to.

The groom's family hosts the rehearsal dinner, (if one is planned) so THEY plan the guest list, and they pay the expenses for all their guests.