Rehearsal Dinner - Fancy or Frugal?

I was originally also planning to go the cheaper pizza route, but then my FH and I ended up being torn between two wedding venues and decided to book the wedding at one venue and the rehearsal dinner at the other. So instead of pizza, we're planning to do a passed apps/plated dinner at a slightly more upscale restaurant on the Chicago River (partly to treat out-of-towners to great city views on the riverwalk balcony). I also love having an excuse to dress up, so I'm pretty excited about going this route!

Ours was at a restaurant with a private room. We had a buffet with ham, chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, salad, rolls, and pasta. Our wedding/rehearsal was about 2 hours from both families and 4 hours from where my husband and I live so having something casual at someone's house wasn't an option. We went to several different restaurants, but the one we picked had the best options. My mother-in-law paid for our rehearsal so I tried to keep everything pretty low cost because she didn't have a huge budget, but we still wanted something a bit nicer than just pizza. We choose not to serve alcohol because my dad is a recovering alcoholic.

I would do very frugal with delicious pizzas and sodas from Costco or your favorite delivery spot. I've only attended that type as a bridesmaid or date of a groomsman and they were a ton of fun.

View Quoted Comment We are doing the same! We are getting married out of state, so we wanted to treat our guests to a great meal at a nice restaurant to further thank them for making the trip. And I am totally with you- I like having an excuse to get dressed up sometimes!

We canceled our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, but before that, we were planning on just having it at our venue, which was a country club. It would've been super convenient and their food is delicious. Since we didn't have a dinner, we did buy the wedding party lunch from the club day-of.

When we first started planning, DH wanted to have a rehearsal dinner at a more upscale restaurant, but convenience and price quickly dictated a lot of our choices.

Pizza isna crowd pleaser and some wine. And if you can, get some catering. Trust me that the fun of it is being together and enjoy the company

My rehearsal dinner will be held at a restaurant in their party room. We're planning on doing a buffet style meal. It's not really super upscale, but it's a little more formal than a backyard BBQ. Since it's a semi-destination wedding, we can't really hold a pizza party in our backyard, and we also wanted to give everyone a nicer meal to thank them for their support and for traveling to/taking time off for our wedding.

His parents are hosting the rehearsal dinner at a restaurant of our choice. I was beginning to stress out over the rehearsal dinner & having another expense! That’s when his mom told me they were taking care of the dinner. Just chose the place, give her the guest list & she’ll take care of the rest!

No we are not. Our wedding is very expensive so we weren't spending extra thousands for an upscale rehearsal dinner.

Ours was on the fancier side. We had it in the private room of the restaurant on site at our venue (country club). It was convenient to have the rehearsal and dinner all at the venue. We had a buffet with some different options and it was a different space within the country club, so it was all different from the following night at the wedding itself. We also had out of town guests. For the rehearsal, we just had unlimited wine and beer rather than full open bar.

We had our dinner at our favorite restaurant a “fancy” Italian place In their private banquet hall (I say “fancy” because it’s nice and has a fancy atmosphere but it’s not like a super expensive stuffy atmosphere type place)
We wanted our entire event to elegant so doing something casual never even crossed our minds. Plus this is what My husband wanted and he didn’t pick a lot (he let me pick everything!) so I didn’t argue with his choice.
All our guests loved it.

Our rehearsal dinner was somewhere in the middle: we rented our a party room with beautiful skyline views, had a caterer do heavy app stations, and served beer, wine, and champagne at the bar (no liquor and not a sit-down dinner). Other than my best friend who had her rehearsal dinner at her home with pizza and beer (which was also a lot of fun), the majority of rehearsal dinners I've attended have been at upscale restaurants or venues with full open bars. This is certainly not the norm nation-wide, but for some reason it has been in my family/social circle. The last rehearsal dinner I attended prior to Covid was at the Ritz Carlton with passed appetizers, a buffet dinner, and open bar. It was a destination wedding and their reasoning was that they wanted to thank guests for travelling there. Rehearsal dinners come in all shapes and forms, and if you have the budget, lots of people like to get fancy! Totally not a requirement though

We had a more formal rehearsal dinner. We got married at a vineyard, so we had our rehearsal dinner in the vineyard’s tasting room. We started with a cocktail hour (open bar) then had dinner prepared and served there. It was nice spending that time with our families and bridal party members before the next day craziness.

I don’t think mine was upscale per say but I was adamant in getting courses and a private room ahah so we had paid for a pre fixe menu where people got a drink and entree and dessert

If we had had a traditional wedding, I think I would have wanted a fancy rehearsal dinner. However, since we had a destination wedding, in lieu of a rehearsal dinner, we wanted to invite everyone to a welcome party. It didn't seem sensible to have a fancy dinner for 50 when that's exactly what we'd be doing the following night at the wedding, so we had a casual party hosted by my mom's family in the AirBnB they rented. The house was absolutely huge and people had lots of room to hang out inside or outside, play pool, darts, etc.

There was lots of beer and wine, hot and cold apps, big trays of Italian food (ziti, sausage and peppers) cooked by my aunt who's any amazing cook and a candy bar for dessert. It wasn't fancy but lots of fun! I still dressed up.

I didn't have a rehearsal or rehearsal dinner, but I have attended both fancy and casual ones. Either is completely fine as long as it's within the host's budget. But I do agree with others that my preference is for more casual, especially if the wedding itself is on the formal side. It's nice to have the contrast.

I think we'll stick to something in the middle. Nothing too fancy or too casual, just a chance to eat with our parents and bridal party and thank them for being at the rehearsal. I'm sure we'll figure it out the closer we get.