destination wedding and bridal luncheon

snoopy76

If only the people I already invited to a destination wedding are invited to bridal  luncheon/tea , would that be okay even if some of the people invited to the bridal luncheon have already declined the invitation to the destinaton wedding? 

Am I correct  that with the bridal luncheon no gifts from guests are expected?  Is the point just to celebrate the upcoming wedding with the bridal party (if any) and female relatives?  

 If I didn't want people to feel obligated to bring gifts but still wanted some type of pre-wedding party, would the bridal luncheon be the best way to go?

saric83

You're totally fine to invite them even if they've declined the wedding invite - just as long as they were actually invited to the wedding. 

As for the gifts, I would just wonder what is typical for your circle of friends and family?  Whether they've had the label of bridal luncheon or shower, in our area, it's a shower with presents.  So if I were invited, I would assume that I should be bringing a gift.

snoopy76

Thank you for your response. I didn't want it to include the traditional gift part of the bridal shower just because people are already spending money to go to the wedding.  I actually have no idea what is typical for my group of friends since I have never seen any of them have any kind of bridal shower or engagement party.

NYCMercedes

@snoopy76, you can invite people to lunch anytime and call it almost anything you want, even a bridal luncheon. Traditionally the bridal luncheon is day of or day before the wedding and is hosted by the bride for her WP. Mine was hosted by my mom's friend. I hosted my daughters' luncheon.

snoopy76

Since I am not having a wedding  bridal party, I was going to host the ladies would have been in my wedding party to a brunch type event and given them all a small gift as a way to celebrate the upcoming wedding and all that these ladies have meant for me. I know one person in particular that would want to host but I feel really bad making people spend more money. My family wouldn't even know to offer to host so I don't see them asking to host.

 

 

NYCMercedes

Go for it!

ceceibson

The women in my family always throw a bridal luncheon, usually the day before the wedding [with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner at night].  When my niece married in Florida [a destination wedding for all of us], my mother, sisters and I hosted the luncheon at the resort where everything else was taking place.

There were several women who declined the wedding but we went ahead and invited them to the luncheon as we were planning to anyway.  These are not gift-giving events, just a get-together.  The bride was kind enough to give each of us hostesses a lovely hostess gift, however.