Covid rehearsal dinner ideas?

Our wedding is in 18 days and we are having our rehearsal the day before, at the venue. Because our venue is 40 minutes from most of our homes, we're all staying at the hotel already the night before. We also have other guests arriving the night before as well and traditionally, in my culture, we host an out of town dinner (the night before the wedding) to thank guests for coming. Obviously we don't have as many guests as originally planned but we are still doing this at the hotel restaurant (it's a nice restaurant and we have their small event space rented). Is something like this an option for you? It is more expensive to do it this way though and I'm not sure if that falls into your budget but figured I'd pipe in!

I agree with Amelia. This seems like something that absolutely does not need to happen in person except for the essential few of you. Wedding ceremonies are pretty straight forward and there isn't a lot to rehearse. Like you said it's kind of a waste for someone to drive 2 hours for a 10 minute rundown of what's going to happen and it's very likely they can get all the information they need via videochat.

If I was one of the people not invited to the dinner portion I'd completely understand. We're in a pandemic and in the worst of times right now. This is not the time to try to have a large dinner party in person. What if someone comes to the rehearsal and spreads covid to your other vendors/guests/family/wedding party? It's possible those people will test positive before your wedding and be unable to attend or what would be worse is if they don't test positive beforehand and infect people at your wedding. I wouldn't risk my wedding for a rehearsal.

If your heart is set on having some sort of rehearsal dinner/party then why not do something via videochat. You can have dinner with your very small group of people first and then afterward do short video chats with the rest of your group to get everyone excited for your wedding. I would recommend splitting it up into smaller groups of people to make it more manageable.

Is your family (including the ones driving in) small enough that you can have a 10 person dinner at home? Or maybe the ones driving in also prefer to just do their own thing.

If I were part of the bridal party, I'd understand at not being able to have dinner due to the pandemic. And the officiant nor the tech people need to be part of the dinner.

I do agree with Amelia on what is more crucial to have and timing wise for everyone to ensure their part is go through with them as the bridal party and the family. Timing groups of 5 at specific hours can help to have the ones driving from far to take on their rehearsal and the most important 5 for the last and then having the dinner as oppose to not having anything done.

Those that can't be there in person to celebrate the evening beforehand can get videos of the dinner and speeches partly sent to watch. Taking a chance of 20 guests at one point will result in losing your dinner and no celebration at all.

Are you more concerned with seeing people or with having a chance to rehearse their roles in the wedding?


If it's truly practice you want I would plan to have people tune into a video chat where they can each be walked through their part of the ceremony. The 5 most vital (tech crew and the couple) could be done in person and the rest digitally. Another option would be for you to have multiple rehearsals (maybe just parents, just bridesmaids, just groomsmen, tech crew ect) so that everyone has a chance to rehearse. I imagine all of these remove the dinner portion and focus on rehearsal only.