Rehearsal Dinner Planning

Truthfully, it is not anyone's responsibility to plan any aspect of your wedding except you and your future spouse. Sounds like a great opportunity for your FS to step up and take some of the responsibility off of your shoulders. Rehearsal dinners don't need to be anything elaborate - just ask him/her to call around to some restaurants and make a reservation that can accommodate the size of your party, or you could just do catering at someones home - Italian, pizza, Mexican, etc. would all be easy, delicious options!

My mother-in-law paid for our rehearsal, but I had to plan. She never really gave us a budget. He told to try to keep everything right around $1,000. I did a ton of research because initially he wanted alcohol to be served at the rehearsal which made it much more difficult to find a place within the $1,000 range. We later agreed on no alcohol since my dad is a recovering alcoholic. I also don't drink nor does my family so about half the guests at the rehearsal wouldn't have been consuming alcohol. Once I found a bunch of places, we reviewed the different menu options with my mother-in-law and we selected with her help the venue we had our rehearsal at. About two weeks prior the wedding, my mom was complaining that she felt left out of the wedding planning so she helped decorate the venue for our rehearsal dinner.

My FH and I planned ours. It's not really that difficult, especially if you're just going to have it in a restaurant. You just need to find a place to have it and choose what to serve. We're having mine at my FH's parents house because they have a big backyard. We just have to order table/chair rentals and we are getting BBQ catering.

My FIL literally transferred x amount of money into my husband's bank account, and that was the extent of his contribution hahaha. No complaints at all on that front lol, I was grateful for the money and preferred to have them less involved and plan everything the way I wanted it anyway!

Like Hannah, we only had to come up with a guest list. But I also freely admit I'm lucky and landed with Italian-American ILs, so "feeding people" is a stereotypical but real thing they love to do.

Honestly, go simple. Don't stress about it. Rehearsal dinners are literally just dinners. They don't need entertainment, just... pizza and beer and soda? Maybe some cookies for a fun touch.

My FIL paid and I planned, it was my actual dream. I hate when other people plan things (especially for our wedding). I'd say the total rehearsal dinner planning took an extra 6 hours, so not much in the grand scheme. I did it in a week. I contacted 5 restaurants nearby, picked the one we liked best for location/menu (we did tour 3 of them, but that's not necessary unless you're picky like I am), and picked the menu. I ordered invites to go in our wedding invites, and people texted me to RSVP.