While this is often considered a gray area of wedding etiquette, the right thing to do is actually very straightforward: Anyone invited to any prewedding events—whether it’s an engagement party, bridal shower, the bachelor/bachelorette or rehearsal dinner—should also expect a wedding invitation in their mailbox. Why? Prewedding parties are kind of like save-the-dates in that they’re forerunners to the main event. You wouldn’t send a save-the-date to someone who wasn’t invited to your wedding. That would be like saying, “Here’s a sneak preview of what you’re not invited to”—which is a serious no-no.
We know your bachelor/bachelorette party most likely isn’t super formal, and more of an awesome get-together with wedding party members and maybe a few other close friends and relatives. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t count as a prewedding event with an important guest list and some thought behind it. Can you imagine how hurt you’d be if your friend invited you to join their bachelorette party (and, don’t forget, help chip in financially) without inviting you to the wedding? Not cool. Make sure everyone invited to your bachelorette party gets a wedding invite too. And if you don’t want to invite them to your wedding, they definitely should not be on the guest list for your bachelorette/bachelor party—no matter how much fun they are.
