Rehearsal Dinner questions

Traditionally the groom's family pays for the rehearsal dinner, which takes place following the wedding rehearsal the night before the wedding.

it is typically bridal party and significant others - although often times out of town family is included as well.

YIKES! your wedding is coming up -- i would start looking into venues and budget pretty quickly....

good luck!

Your FH's family usually traditionally pays for it. We are just inviting the bridal party and our parents and of course the officiant.

Could you do it in the location you are having the reception? That's what we are doing, and the place is comping the room for us since we are using it for the wedding the next day. They are being nice, and not making us pay twice for the room. & the food they offer is decently priced, and I imagine there will be alot less people at the rehearsal dinner.

If we had it our way we'd have a bbq and a keg or 2 and call it good! But being the weather is pretty unpredictable in Nov in North Dakota I don't want to risk that! There is a restaurant at our reception venue I think I'll look into that and see if maybe they will give us a good deal. I'm not too worried about finding a place, November is an awesome month to get married because no one else is! Finding available vendors has been so easy! I just wondered if it would be rude to ask FH's dad to foot the bill, and if we had to invite bm and gm's significant others (and pay for them as well)

Yes, you invite BM and GM significant others and pay for them.

It's officiant, parents, grandparents, siblings, wedding party, and their significant others. My ILs hosted and also included out of town relatives. It was actually a little much for me, having to meet a slew of new people the night before the wedding. I think smaller can be better.

If you're not up for a whole shebang, why not just have pizza and beer and call it a day? I think it would be fun and easy on the wallet.

I had Fh just ask them. He kind of just told them what is usually the 'traditional' thing, but did not make it seem like it was a 'must' and they were happy to help with that. They will even pay for all the alchol, and possibly give us an itty bitty amount towards the wedding flowers, but I am not expecting anything like that.

FMIL apparently read somewhere or heard something somewhere that it is also groom's parents responsibity to pay for flowers though i do not know if that's true or not.

I'll have a bbq :-) I think that's is the best idea..They will have enough "fanciness' the wedding day lol Why not relax the day before!!

The grooms family........but nowadays, anyone. We are paying for our own.

It's up for grabs, in the "who pays the bills" department, but traditionally, it's the groom's family. A lot of these time honored rules have gone out the window.

I also like rehearsal dinners that are casual and relaxed. One of my couples rented a pool hall and had it there! It was a ball!

To the part about it being rude to ask your FFIL, it is a little. Generally, if someone doesn't offer, I assume they don't want to do it. If you do end up asking, be prepared to foot the bill yourself if he says no.

Traditionally the groom's family would offer to pay, but I think nowadays it's a little presumptuous to ask them to foot the bill. If they offer, you can accept, but I would recommend putting aside money in the budget in case they don't follow through. I think you should go with what's most comfortable for you--and if you don't want to rent out a place, host it at your home and keep it simple. However, I think you should invite your bridal party and their significant others, as well as close family members, and the officiant if you are planning to do a rehearsal dinner at all.

Now, my questions is...is the Bride & Groom both in attendance considering you don't see the bride before the wedding? When does that come into play?

Fmil offered to pay for ours, I want a simple cook out at our house so that people dont feel rushed, and can relax pay corn hole and have a fire. She is not going for this. Our rehearsal is on friday and our wedding is on sunday. We have a pretty large bridal party, and I dont want to lug all there gifts to a place when there sitting right here in our back bedroom .

Jermia, generally both bride and groom are in attendance at the dress rehearsal dinner. The purpose of the dress rehearsal isn't just to eat, but also to do a brief run through of the ceremony so everyone knows their place the day of the wedding. The bride and groom can see each other at the dress rehearsal, it's just that they won't spend the remainder of the evening together and generally do not see each other in the hours leading up to the ceremony. That's traditionally what happens.

We are paying for our own and we are having at a pizza place. We are also not doing alcohol, since it is not in our budget and we don't think anyone at the rehearsal will miss it anyway (no one wants to be hungover on the big day). Super cheap.

We are inviting the officiant, the WP and their SOs, our parents, our siblings and their SOs, maybe our nieces and nephews (they are not invited to the wedding so we think it would be a nice gesture, plus the parents won't have to pay for a sitter for both days), our grandparents, and all of the OOT guests (there are maybe 5 of them). I think this is a little larger than what is typical but it's the norm for our families.

And traditionally, the bride and groom would part ways after the rehearsal dinner and not see each other until the ceremony.

It's up to you who you want to invite...my wedding was small, so all of the guests were invited to the rehearsal dinner. You should at least invite immediate family and the bridal party (along with significant others), and it's nice to include out of town guests as well, but not necessary. Traditionally, the groom's family pays, but in our case they were unable to, so my parents did. It usually is the day before the wedding, following the wedding rehearsal. And yes, both the bride and groom attend the rehearsal dinner, so don't let your FH wiggle out of it! (Mine tried by offering to babysit his niece instead...of course it didn't work, but he gets credit for trying!)

As for seeing each other before the wedding...that's up to you. Traditionally, the bride and groom don't see each other the day of, but these days many couples opt to take pictures before the ceremony, which means they have to be together. So it depends on what you want and what you feel is right.