Rehearsal dinner

We are doing the rehearsal dinner right across the street from our hotel venue. We will be having salad, garlic cheese bread, pasta and wings. Then after dinner at the same restaurant we are inviting all of our out of town guests to join us for drinks. For the dinner itself we are looking at around 30 or 35 people.

You really shouldn't make your guests pay for their own meals. The point of rehearsal to is thank your guests not make them pay. For our rehearsal, we rented a private room and had a buffet style meal.

View Quoted Comment Your opinion. And I’ve been in weddings where we paid for our own dinner. If I paid for their dresses and my FH paid for his Groomsmens shoes the least they can do is pay for their own food. Everyone is perfectly fine with it.

View Quoted Comment Pasta and wings are my favorite ❤️❤️

44 people. Pizza and pasta. At the venue.

My MIL is taking care of the rehearsal dinner, but we’ll be having it in a private room at a restaurant not too far from the church.

View Quoted Comment Ya know we were thinking ordering pizza, wings and subs and having like a game night with drinks ❤️

View Quoted Comment Since you have already paid for their outfits which a lot bride's don't do then it makes sense especially since you have told them beforehand.

View Quoted Comment Keep it casual. Why not? Anyone that doesn't like pizza, wings and subs isn't a real friend lol. I have gone to both types of rehearsals where I paid my way or someone else paid. As long as they are cool them that's all that matters.

View Quoted Comment Right! That’s all that matters ❤️

We’re doing something similar (and also 20-30 guests varying in ages), but the only thing I’d add is we’re opting for giving our guests limited choices off the menu (so we’ll create a Menu card to hand as they walk-in,have them make a choice and then turn in all at once).that will also help us control price as we’re paying for it.

That way we can order and have everything delivered reasonably timely without the one dinner that always takes FOREVER to prepare!! I’ve been to too many dinners where it is herding cats so I’m not wanting this dinner to last hoursssss on the night before my wedding!

Luckily, our venue hosts rehearsal dinner. We just have to pick our menu when we're a certain amount of time out. With bridal party and dates, parents, grandparents, and siblings we're looking at about 30 people! We have to pay extra if we go over that.

We'll be at about 25 people. We have teens to adults - we opted for pizza at a great pizza place that has pool and games. We're getting a set amount of pizzas with some basic toppings. Our wedding is in the evening the next day - so it should be a fun time for all. Dessert will be birthday cake for two bridesmaids whose birthdays are that week and weekend.

View Quoted Comment

Those weddings were also rude. The point of the rehearsal dinner is to thank the people at your rehearsal. They should not be asked to pay for their own thank you. You paying for any part of their attire - the attire you required them to get, mind you - is completely irrelevant. And of course nobody is going to tell you that they mind. Just like you don't tell your grandmother that you don't like the gift she gave you, no matter how hideous it is or how much it doesn't match your style.

We took them to a restaurant where we got a private deck and we had drinks, entree and dessert for everyone.

Since we are doing a destination wedding and I think we are doing just something super low key, like catering for the rehearsal dinner like bbq or chic-fil-a or Zaxby's catering. For the most part the only people attending the wedding are parents, grandparents and siblings and bridal party so I practically think they all need to be invited to the rehearsal dinner.


We are doing a dinner after the ceremony and providing food at our reception at home a few months later. We didn't think we needed to go all out and provide 3 fancy meals for our wedding party.

We were originally going to order platters from Publix but I decided that it wasn't really dinner and more of finger foods. So now we are going to order from olive garden, and were having it at my future in laws house. We will only have 17-19 people, including us. Just the wedding party their dates, and our parents.

We have been struggling with this one. We also wanted to be budget conscious and aren’t trying to do two fancy dinners in a row! Right now we are thinking about doing a get together at our favorite brewery in a private dinning area with drinks and passed starters. We are planning for about 30 guests.

I think your idea is completely fine! My FH and I are looking at doing pizza, water and soft drinks at our venue after the rehearsal. We're having our rehearsal from 5-6 and then our venue is allowing us to begin the set-up process (since we are decorating ourselves). After pizza, those who want to leave are welcome to and myself, my grandmother, FMIL and my two FSIL's are going to set everything up for the reception - as long as our venue isn't having an event in our reception space.

My FH also brought up the idea of going to a restaurant not far from our venue and having a quick dinner with everyone and then returning to the venue to decorate.

FH and I were just talking about this last night. His parents said that they are paying for the dinner and want to invite all family and all out of town guests (our wedding party is just one on each side, and they, and their families, fall into the family and/or out of towners). Right now that is 48 people, but it depends on who RSVP's yes. We are thinking of an Italian restaurant. You get more bang for your bucket and pasta/pizza fills people up quickly!