Hi! I have a question about rehearsal dinners I was hoping to get help with.
I live in Southwest Florida, and I don't want a destination wedding for myself, so I am planning the wedding down here too. We're only inviting family (save for three members of the wedding party) and no one lives any closer than an eleven hour drive. This is definitely a "destination wedding" for everyone attending (94 invites but probably only 60 will come)!
The wedding itself is going to be low-key: morning ceremony on the beach followed by a brunch reception. We've been looking into places to have the rehearsal dinner but my FMIL is pretty insistant that we invite all of the OOT guests, whereas my fiance and I just want to invite the wedding party and immediate family (which would take the guest list down to about 25). FILs may or may not be contributing to the rehearsal dinner, but my FI and I are planning on covering it anyway.
My question is, are we expected to include all of the OOT guests at the rehearsal dinner? Even if 100% of the guests are from out of town? They're all aunts, uncles, and cousins so they won't be "alone" in a strange town (they would probably be down here for a mini-vacation because of the date/time/location).
Thanks!