Rehearsal dinner - what are you planning?

My FM&FIL are insisting on paying for it, but I want to host it at the venue.

We're having our wedding on a Friday, and our venue will allow us to set up the day before between 12 and 5. They haven't opened booking for our time frame yet but when they do I'm going to snap up a date, rehearsal time the night before, and preferably dinner time after that and the onsite B&B for that night (for the girls) and maybe the next night too (for us). So FH and I (and anyone who wants to help) can show up at 12 to decorate, then have the rehearsal at 5, and then book the venue for 3 hours for dinner. Then the girls and I can go to the B&B for the night where we'll have a bit of wine, they'll open their gifts, and we'll do mani/pedis if time allows, and the guys can go back to our place and do whatever they want to do.

Sadly though, his parents probably won't go for that and will insist that we drive 45 minutes each way from the venue to their house and back to the venue/our place. I think it makes more sense to just do it there since everyone will already be there and most of us are heading back that way anyway, but ugh. I'll even pay for the rental out of my own pocket I just don't want to spend my evening driving all over after having worked like a dog all afternoon.

As far as food, who knows. As long as FFIL isn't cooking I'll eat whatever. He thinks he's a great cook but NOPE lol.

Nothing huge as the last month we have a lot of payments due.... just a small dinner for wedding party and immediate family

My in laws are hosting so it’ll be at their home which is close to the church. Usually they go through a caterer and get salads, lasagna, perogies, Polish soup, etc.

View quoted message Yeah true that! Its always on my mind

View quoted message Yeah it is but I'm very ready for it at this point it's just little day by day tasks.

View quoted message Depending on your venue, they might have a smaller room you could rent out, or recommend somewhere nearby

View quoted message Thanks for the reply, yes I totally agree! And have the same issue :/

Hey, we have the same wedding day!!

We're doing our rehearsal at the venue (also a hotel) and then we rented a smaller banquet room for dinner. We have a quite a few attending - totaling 28 in total so this was best for us, but it is pricier than going out to a restaurant or having it in a backyard. Also most of the guests for rehearsal would be staying at the hotel anyways, so they don't have to drive in a strange city.

We would've done a backyard thing but sunset is at 6:30pm and that's when dinner would start lol

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That's where at least my venue - although 45 min outside the perimeter- has a couple cabins and we are renting a travel trailer to stay in over night and we will be there from Friday until Sunday.

Personally if I didn't have my venue for the whole weekend I would just do a BBQ at my house or my parents house (we are always in renovation mode at mine) because it's not like there is much to go over other than when and how to walk down an aisle as well as order of events and handing out an itinerary to people.

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Lol not a problem!

Yes we are. It was an extra fee for our officiant, but I think it is worth it, more so for the guys than the women lol! Puts my mind at ease for the next day as well to make sure everything runs smoothly. I'm a super organized person, so I want everyone else to know what they have to do!

View quoted message Congrats! It's coming fast!

View quoted message Thanks for the reply. I'm hoping I can do the rehearsal at the place we are having our wedding at. It was offered months back but unsure if that's still okay or not. And it's also on the opposite side of town for us for where my MIL wants to do the dinner for us at our house :/ .. thought about renting a limo for wedding party transportation

View quoted message I don't know where you saw that? I'm getting married on October 5th it should say that on my profile. But our guest count is 97 telling the venue 105.

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Yeah it's very difficult to do something in the fall outside. My in laws have a big enough house to accommodate everyone inside, plus they are Italian, so big dinners and a ton of people is completely normal. We are really only adding, my parents, my brother and his gf, and my sister to the rehearsal plus his immediate family so we are doing it inside.

We are not doing it at our venue. Our rehearsal is at 3 the day before our wedding, and they have someone coming in at 5. So we just found it easier to go somewhere else and be more comfortable. Plus our venue's prices for a rehearsal dinner was more than we would pay being at home.

View quoted message Sorry I just realized you havent had the wedding yet. So correcting my last message ** do you plan to do a rehearsal walk through ??

View quoted message Yeah my mother in law wants to do a beef brisket and pulled pork dinner for the family and wedding party.. but where we live it gets cold in the evenings for sure in october and even dark out so idk how we are suppose to have all these people at the house. Did you do a rehearsal at the place your ceremony is at?

View quoted message Yes! I only recently discovered the discussion part, and started taking part in it. Seems super helpful. So you've gotten married already, when was your wedding? How many people were at it ?

I believe we are going to my in laws house and just having some easy food that we can pick up. Antipasto tray, lasagna, beef on a bun. Just keeping it simple and light!

View quoted message No problem! I really love being a part of this community. It's so lovely and supportive. It's kind of my calm though all of this.

We are having it the night before the wedding at our venue (we have it for the whole weekend), and it will be "catered" by my FMIL. I think she is making ham and sides as well as rice pudding for dessert. Other than that we did think about BBQ'ing but we are having BBQ for the wedding itself.

View quoted message Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it! Sounds great, and very helpful

We have it set up where everyone meets at the venue, bridal party, parents and us (15 of us total). We will do our run through and make sure everyone knows what's happening on the day. Then we have booked a reservation at a pub literally across the street so we can just walk over. For anyone going to a restaurant after the rehearsal. If you have more than 6 people please call ahead of time so they can accommodate you. It's a lot of the staff to manage moving tables around last minute while already serving other people. And often they need at least 2 people to run a table that big. Also tip your servers folks.

I have a very small wedding party. One person on each side and no children. I think after we do our run through for the next day (and set up if there is no wedding the night before) we will just head to a restaurant.