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Rehearsal dinner invitations signal that the evening before your wedding is as important as the day itself. Each invitation is printed on premium paper with your choice of letterpress, metallic foil, or flat ink, and designed to pair directly with your printed wedding invitations. Order as an add-on to your wedding suite or as a standalone set.
The rehearsal dinner follows different wording conventions than the wedding invitation. Open with the host line — whoever is hosting and paying for the dinner, typically the groom's family or both families together. Follow with the couple's names, date, start time, venue name and address, dress code if applicable, and RSVP instructions with a deadline.
The tone should be warmer and less ceremonial than your wedding invitation. "Invite you to join them for dinner" is appropriate where a wedding invitation might read "request the honour of your presence." Formal events can spell out dates in full; semi-formal and casual dinners can use standard date formatting. For sample wording at every formality level, see the complete rehearsal dinner invitation wording guide.
Start with the wedding party and their partners, immediate family on both sides, the officiant, and anyone with a defined role in the ceremony such as readers or musicians. Out-of-town guests are a standard inclusion — inviting them is a practical courtesy when guests have traveled specifically for your wedding weekend.
Grandparents are traditionally included. Aunts, uncles, and close family friends depend on the size of your dinner and your budget. If you're uncertain about a specific person, two criteria make the decision straightforward: do they have a defined role in the ceremony, or did they travel from out of town? The rehearsal dinner is designed to be small and intimate, and keeping the guest list tight is entirely appropriate.
Send rehearsal dinner invitations four to six weeks before the wedding. If a meaningful portion of your guests is traveling, push that to six to eight weeks so they have time to coordinate travel around the rest of the wedding weekend.
Rehearsal dinner invitations always go out after the wedding invitations. Guests need to know they are invited to the wedding before they receive an invitation to the dinner the night before. Request RSVPs at least two weeks before the event to allow time for final catering counts and any seating adjustments.
Send rehearsal dinner invitations separately from wedding invitations. The rehearsal dinner guest list is a subset of the wedding guest list, and enclosing both in the same mailing creates confusion about who is invited to which event.
Printed invitations are standard for formal and semi-formal rehearsal dinners. A separate reply card is not required — an RSVP email address, phone number, or digital link is sufficient. If you need a digital option, online rehearsal dinner invitations offer the same design precision in a shareable format. For printed sets, order at the same time as your wedding stationery to ensure the paper, printing method, and design details align exactly.
Include the host line, the couple's names, date, start time, venue name and full address, dress code if applicable, and a clear RSVP method with a deadline. A separate reply card is not required. An email address, phone number, or digital RSVP link is sufficient for rehearsal dinner RSVPs.
Matching is not required, but coordination across the wedding weekend makes a stronger impression. Bliss & Bone designs every rehearsal dinner invitation to pair directly with its corresponding wedding suite, using the same cotton paper stock, printing method, and design details.
Four to six weeks is standard. For weddings where a significant number of guests are traveling, send six to eight weeks in advance to give guests time to coordinate travel around the full wedding weekend.
Yes. Immediate family on both sides is always included in the rehearsal dinner guest list. Extended family — aunts, uncles, cousins — is a judgment call based on dinner size and budget.
They should be sent separately. Because the rehearsal dinner guest list is a subset of the wedding guest list, enclosing both in the same envelope implies that everyone receiving a wedding invitation is also invited to the dinner, which is rarely the case.
Browse the full collection above, or start with your wedding invitation suite and add a matching rehearsal dinner set during checkout. Every design is available on 100% cotton paper with letterpress, metallic foil, or flat ink — and a dedicated designer reviews every order before it goes to press.