--- title: 'Welcome parties and the morning after' description: 'A wedding is increasingly a weekend. How to invite people to the other two events without confusing anybody about which is which.' source: 'https://envelope.love/blog/welcome-party-and-brunch-invitations' category: 'Occasions' published: '2026-02-08' updated: '2026-02-08' --- # Welcome parties and the morning after A wedding is increasingly a weekend. How to invite people to the other two events without confusing anybody about which is which. This is the plain markdown copy of https://envelope.love/blog/welcome-party-and-brunch-invitations, published by Love Envelope for machine readers. The page itself carries the same words. More weddings now span a weekend than a day, particularly where guests are travelling. A welcome party on the Friday, the wedding on the Saturday, something informal on the Sunday morning. The events are easy. Communicating them is where it goes wrong, because you now have three guest lists, three times and three places, and guests who cannot tell which of them they are invited to. ## The welcome party Held the evening before, usually for anybody who has travelled. It is the event that most improves a wedding, because it means a large part of the room has already met by the time the ceremony starts. Keep it genuinely informal. Drinks, something to eat standing up, an early finish. > If you are in town on Friday, come and have a drink with us at the Harbour Inn from seven. No plan, no speeches, just a chance to say hello before the day itself. The words "if you are in town" are doing important work. They make attendance optional without making it sound like a lesser invitation, and they mean nobody feels they have to travel a day early. ## How it differs from the rehearsal dinner These two are frequently confused and occasionally the same event. The distinction that matters is the guest list. - **Rehearsal dinner.** Small. Family and the wedding party. Usually seated. See [rehearsal dinner invitation wording](https://envelope.love/blog/rehearsal-dinner-invitation-wording) - **Welcome party.** Large. Anybody who has travelled, sometimes everybody. Standing If you are doing both on the same evening, do them in sequence and be very clear about which is which. If that sounds complicated, it is, and most couples pick one. ## The morning after The easiest event to host and the one guests remember most fondly. Coffee, something to eat, no start time worth defending, and everybody arrives when they arrive. > Breakfast at the hotel from ten on Sunday, for as long as anybody is still standing. Come in whatever you are wearing. Do not put a formal start time on it, do not ask for a reply, and do not plan anything that requires a specific number of people to be present at a specific moment. ## Put the whole weekend in one place This is the practical heart of it. Three separate invitations to three events, sent at different times, produce a guest who cannot remember whether Sunday was a thing. One document with the weekend on it, with each event clearly marked and each one saying who it is for, is far easier to hold in your head. > Friday, from seven. Drinks at the Harbour Inn, for anybody already here. Saturday, two o'clock. The wedding, at Ashford Barn. Sunday, from ten. Breakfast at the hotel, come and go as you please. Where the rest of the detail lives, so that it does not crowd the invitation itself, is covered in [what goes where](https://envelope.love/blog/wedding-website-or-invitation). ## Say who each event is for The rule that prevents every problem here. Each event gets one clause naming its guest list. - "for anybody in town" - "family and the wedding party" - "everybody, come and go" Without those, a guest who has travelled will spend the whole weekend quietly unsure whether they should be somewhere. ## Do you need replies For the welcome party, a rough number is enough, because you are buying drinks rather than plating dinners. For the morning after, no, and asking for one makes an easy thing feel like an obligation. Ask for both alongside the wedding reply rather than in a separate round of messages. One question, three answers. [Collecting replies online](https://envelope.love/blog/collect-rsvps-online) covers it. ## Watch the cost of the weekend Every event you add is another night of accommodation and another day of leave for your guests. Two extra events is a genuine expense for anybody travelling, and it will affect who can come. Make it clear that the wedding is the part that matters and the rest is optional, and mean it. --- Make yours. Six designs, your own words, and one link to send. Free to build, free for a day once it is live. Start an invitation: https://envelope.love/create