What does the term "host family" mean in this context?

I’ve never heard it used in that context either. Is the bride a native English speaker?

I would assume it’s the person footing the bill.

It sounds as if the godparents paid for the rehearsal dinner. It would be a polite way of recognizing them for their role and not point out that they are the ones financially supporting the event. Just an assumption on my part.

I know for sure the bride’s family is paying for the wedding and the bride’s parents and my husband and I hosted the rehearsal dinner. @bookish1 yes, the bride is a native English speaker. It is a Catholic family with deep roots in the mid-west.

Edit: Never mind…I misread the question.

Is the bride staying with them?

@SuperMouse I may now be lost.
– Who paid for the rehearsal dinner?
– Who is the godmother?
– If the bride’s parents and you any your husband hosted the rehearsal dinner, what does “hosting” mean to you?
– Were you and your husband the ones that were recognized, or was it someone else?

@marinelife no, the bride and groom live in the town where the wedding is taking place.

@Pied Pfeffer, the bride’s family and my husband and I paid for the rehearsal dinner. The godmother introduced herself to us as the bride’s godmother as well as one half of the couple called the “host family”. I am not sure if/how she is related to the bride but I got the impression she is a family friend rather than a relative.

To me hosting the rehearsal dinner means footing the bill and being included as hosts on the invitation, My husband and I were recognized, along with the parents of the bide, as hosts on the invitation to the rehearsal dinner. (This seemed rather odd to me though because we had no hand in planning the rehearsal and in fact didn’t even know about it until we received the invitation! It was at this point that we offered financial banking for the event.)

I’ve never heard that before either and would have assumed it either meant that they were footing the bill for the rehearsal dinner or that the bride was staying with them. I wonder if there is a way for your husband to ask your stepson what was meant.

I think it is something they made up to make the godmother feel like she is a participant. She’s not hosting anything.

The Godparent is the religious “sponsor” for the couple. The bride may have mis-spoken and used the term “host” in place of the word “sponsor”.

Can you ask the person who used the expression? It seems she wasn’t referring to a conventional definition. Perhaps only she knows what she meant.

^ Indeed. And then please let us know – I’m curious now. :)