Rehearsal Dinner - What are you doing?

I thought long and hard about the rehearsal dinner and we almost just decided to skip it altogether and just have our wedding party and officiant meet up somewhere to rehearse and maybe go out for dinner somewhere afterwards. We are paying for our wedding ourselves, so it just didn't seem like we would have the budget for a rehearsal dinner.

But then I had an idea... To just do a rehearsal picnic instead! So, we rented out a lovely shelter at our local county park and we're gonna grill out and play games, like Frisbee, horseshoes, ladder ball, and vollyeball. We're also going to serve beer and wine.

We LOVE that park and go for walks and bicycle rides there quite often, so the location also has meaning to us. We also thought that it would be a super fun and super affordable option for us! Also, it will be over with by 5pm, so we will be able to get to bed relatively early the night before the wedding. I am actually sooooo excited that we have decided to do it this way! It suits our budget and our personalities.

We definitely wanted to be budget-friendly since we're pretty laid back and our wedding party is on the small side. So we reserved the private room at one of our favorite casual Mexican/pizza restaurants that is centrally located for everyone and kid-friendly! It's affordable and they were just a lot easier to deal with than fancier/more expensive venues that wanted like $40+ per person. We just go up and order our food and pick it up from the counter when it's ready. Plus there's a bar for anyone who wants drinks!

My future in laws are having a close family friend bring in smoked brisket and baked beans- it is going to be so good!! We also have family members pitching in to bring some salads and desserts. We're actually able to have it at the wedding venue in one of the side rooms since we booked the whole place. We wanted something easy and delicious- just a way to relax and get ready for the big day!