Relaxing Rehearsal Dinner

Keep your rehearsal dinner light and casual: a barbeque, clambake, pasta supper---anything non-formal that will let you chill out with your guests. If possible, have your dinner two nights ahead instead of the night before . . . you´ll have a more relaxing wedding eve, you´ll hopefully get more sleep, and you´ll have the chance to catch your breath before the big day.

Hosting the Dinner

Traditionally it´s the groom´s family who hosts the rehearsal dinner, but in today´s world it can be given by the bride´s family or the couple themselves as well.

What You Do There

At a rehearsal dinner, family and friends toast the couple, the bride and groom can give thank-you gifts to their attendants, and your families can get to know one another better if they haven´t spent much time together prior to the wedding.

Rehearsal Dinner Invites?

You only need to send invitations to the rehearsal dinner if you´re inviting guests from out of town. Having just your families and wedding party you´ll know how many people to expect, but it´s a good idea to have RSVPs if you´re inviting any people outside that basic group so you know how much food/space you´ll need.

Keeping It Small

If you´re not thrilled about the idea of inviting out of town guests to your rehearsal dinner but feel guilting not doing so, you might want to consider having your rehearsal dinner two days before your wedding---no guests will have arrived, and you won´t feel guilty for not inviting them.

Be Different! Have wedding rehearsal dinners

If you have the time, it´s always fun to have a theme for the wedding rehearsal dinners, make sure that it´s something different from the wedding theme---if the wedding´s very formal, try a cookout or a clambake for the rehearsal dinner.

Who´s Invited?

Who you invite to your rehearsal dinner is up to you. At the very least you invite your and your beloved´s immediate families, your wedding party, and their spouses or significant others. If you´d like, you can also invited out of town guests who have arrived for the wedding.

Head Table Place Cards - Wedding Reception Events

Place cards usually aren´t necessary for the head table, but if you want to use them, you can either match the style of formality to the rest of your place cards, or go with first names only since they´re your friends and relative and there aren´t that many of you at the table. The choice is yours, as there isn´t really any right or wrong way to go about it when planning your wedding reception events.