• Rehearsal dinners will often take place in a nice restaurant.Feiern image by Lilia Beck from Fotolia.com
  
  Rehearsal dinners traditionally take place the evening before the wedding, following the wedding rehearsal. It is a more intimate pre-celebration for the happy couple-to-be. As people continue to experience economic woes and traditional wedding guidelines get tossed aside to accommodate societal evolution, rules for rehearsal dinners and rehearsal dinner invitations have changed. There is not a strict set of rules that you must follow when dealing with rehearsal dinner invitations. There are, however, several helpful guidelines and tips to consider.
  
  

Wording

• To begin the invitation, several different phrases may be used. Common starting phrases include "in honor of," "to celebrate with," "please join us" or "in anticipation of." Traditionally speaking, the groom's parents are in charge of the rehearsal dinner planning and payment. The names of the event's hosts should be included on this part of the invitation. Other important details to mention are location, RSVP information, address, date and time of the dinner. If it is taking place immediately following the wedding rehearsal, state this.
  
  

What Invitations to Send

• What type of invitation to send and its formality depends on the type of rehearsal dinner you are having. If this is a formal event, a large dinner or guests from out of town are going to be invited, official invitations should be sent in the mail. Dialogue, the writing on the invitation and the invitation paper should fit the formality of the event as well. If your rehearsal dinner is going to be small or casual, an emailed invitation with all of the required information is considered appropriate.
  
  

Who to Invite

• Rehearsal dinners traditionally include a predetermined set of people such as members of the wedding party and their dates, immediate family and the parents of any children that are part of the wedding party. Children do not have to be invited. It is also polite to invite guests who have gone through the trouble of traveling from out of state. If you do not wish to include these out-of-town guests, the wedding rehearsal dinner should take place two nights before the wedding. There are no rules, however. If you wish to have a more lavish affair, invite more people. If you wish to keep it intimate, invite immediate family, maid of honor and the best man only.