Possibly no rehearsal dinner

If you have the rehearsal, you have to provide a meal. You can go to a local pizza place if you want, but you have to do something.

The option is to skip the rehearsal. The DOC or event manager should be able to walk all of you through the entire ceremony in about ten minutes on the day of the wedding. Honestly, I've been setting up reception spaces and have seen DOCs doing exactly what is done in a rehearsal dinner (minus the actual walking), and that's taken place fifteen minutes before the ceremony begins.

It is terrible to not feed the bridal party if you ask them to rehearse. Two options:

Skip the rehearsal completely. It's not that complicated the adults can get the hang of it quickly.

Save some money and host an affordable dinner such as pizza and beer or some BBQ. It does not have to be fancy.

You need to have a dinner if you are going to require a rehearsal. It can be very casual like pizza or something but you must pay for everyone.

Skip the rehearsal if you can't properly host with a dinner. Anything. Doesn't have to be fancy.

First of all there's no "the grooms parents generally pay." It's your wedding and your responsibility. If you have a rehearsal (which you do not have to have), then you have to feed those people.

If you can't have any kind of dinner (like pizza) then you shouldn't have a rehearsal. And honestly unless you're having a super intense ceremony where the wedding party does more than walk in a straight line and stand in one place, you probably don't need a rehearsal, or you could just run through it very quickly the day of.

You have to offer dinner. It can be pizza but if they're rehearsing you have to offer dinner

Pizza, beer and a bonfire would be so much more fun than a fancy rehearsal dinner

Pizza is a pretty cheap idea. How many people would you have to pay for ?

You must provide a dinner if you're asking your bridal party to come to a rehearsal. Is there a pizza place nearby? BBQ? It doesn't have to be fancy

I just realized that your original post says you were thinking about a "pitch in" at your house, but logistically it wouldn't work. I thought that was an auto-correct for something else, but now I realize what you were considering.

Whatever you do, no pitch-ins, okay? Seriously, it's better to not have the rehearsal and skip the dinner if you need guests to supplement the meal. You provide everything and pay the tab. This is a thank-you dinner hosted for those who left their homes and places of business to attend your wedding rehearsal. They don't pitch it at their own thank you dinner...not even a bottle of soda.

It would be for approximately 25 people. The issue I'm also having is finding a nicer pizza place near by. Everything is like 35 minutes away. Ugh!

I was in a wedding where we didn't do a rehearsal. She basically told us who we were partnered with and we all waited 5 seconds apart. Bam ! Lol

Does your church have a social room/fellowship hall you could use for an hour or so?

That's a good question- I hadn't considered asking the church if they had a space...

Another thing is that our rehearsal would probably be over around 3:30. So not really prime dinner hour

Go to a local pizza place.

"It would be for approximately 25 people. The issue I'm also having is finding a nicer pizza place near by. Everything is like 35 minutes away. Ugh!"

There are no restaurants or pizza places closer than 35 minutes? Are your guests all local because if they're staying in hotels, there has to be at least one place to eat close by?

You need to have a dinner if you have a rehearsal. You can also skip the rehearsal itself and then the dinner issue solves itself. But if you require people to rehearse, they need to be properly fed and liquored.

Could you bring a grill there and cook burgers or something? Since it will probably be over around 3:30, maybe do lunch then rehearse? Could you get heroes or sandwiches catered in? That wouldn't be too expensive.