Some recs for Rehearsal Dinner (Budget Friendly please)?

Our venue gave us the name of a local restaurant that would give us 10% discount if we used them for our rehearsal dinner. Another way we saved was to have our rehearsal at noon and then have a rehearsal lunch. We got lunch pricing instead of dinner plus the 10% off. Call around to some local restaurants. Some places will give you set pricing if you have a limited menu. Also you can opt for a less expensive option like ordering fried chicken or sub sandwiches from the grocery store deli and then having the rehearsal dinner at your (or someones) house.

We did olive garden catering for a famiy dinnr...60 people for about $8.50 a person...not including drinks (we just bought some sodas from costco.....but did include about 4-5 different choices of entrees served buffet styles, salad, and breadsticks...and they delivered the food and set it up for free

We are going to China town and having a dinner there (it helps that my FI is chinese and most of the out of town guests are chinese). Also, no need to provide alchohol.

Had a barbecue and pool party. It was relaxed and fun. Do not over plan. You want no stress that close to the wedding.

We sent our invites out that said it was a dutch style and anyone that could come we would be happy to see them but anyone that couldnt, we understood. We just couldnt afford to pay anything extra.

Ours is 2 pans of lasagna (homemade of course), salad, and bread. Cost about $100 for all ingredients and I'm making one and my mother will make one.

CK t- you will have to let me know if you find anything in the area. We are both getting married in Leesburg if I recall correctly and I am struggling to find an inexpensive place to hold the rehersal dinner as well. I will try to keep you posted.

Sure thing Stacy G. will do.

I'm seeing some recommendations for Chinese, but while I do my fair share of binging on Chinesse food..., be4 a wedding? Nyet! LOL!

We had a bunch of pizzas delivered. We didn't have a rehearsal, but wanted to get a chance to see our guests (all but one of whom were OOT) in a relaxed atmosphere.

When my brother got married we grilled up hamburgers afterwards.

We are just going to have something at my mom's...Either her husband will grill up so food or we will order a bunch of pizzas....Maybe I will do $5 pizzas from little ceasars. I agree the wedding cost enough I do not want to pay for dinner the day before.

@CKt....I hear you on the Chinese. I would avoid chilli as well. ; ).

I would consider the BBQ option.

@ bluedaisy - my goodness...olive garden for 8.50??? WOW

where do you live....

these are some great creative ideas posted here....i really needed this.

We are doing pizza and wings on FMIL patio since the ceremony is in the field near her house.

Denver metro..so not the priciest area, but still not the cheapest. it helped the their catering guy was super helpful and said that the portions were big, so when the catering menu said 4-6 servings, you could count on it being 6 easy. Also, he said the salad portions were large too and recommended like 1/2 what the menu said for our number of people. I dont know how much was left over, but I do know we had plenty for everyone there.

we probably could have made it even a little cheaper if we had stuck to the cheapest food options, as it was I think we had fettucine alfredo with chicken (and some without chicken), spaghettic with meat sauce, lasagna, and cheese ravioli

You all are making me hungry.

But Pizza to me would be the most fun & easy.

We're having our rehearsal dinner at the Knights of Columbus hall next door to our church (where the rehearsal is....so it's really convenient and super cheap). We're using a caterer our family uses all the time; it's coming out to $10 a head.

We had a casual pizza and pasta dinner.. no alcohol.. wine, beer and soda..ice cream sundaes for dessert.. we were able to have 60 people as it was so reasonable.. we did it 2 nights before the wedding as it was even less expensive.. it was wonderful.. here's how we did it : http://www.celebrationideasonline.com/Planning-a-wedding.html We did the centerpieces ourselves using bunches of daisies and pictures that served as our seating chart.. it was all easy to do and no one cared that it was not fancy.. just so fun to have everyone together..

We are planning on doing Subway platters and soft drinks/water at our venue (we can do the rehearsal "dinner" outside).

We are doing a cook out in my parents backyard