A
wedding ceremony is more complicated than you think and everybody needs to do
and say the right things at the right time for it to run smoothly. It’ll be a
bit embarrassing if somebody messes up their lines. That’s why most people have
a wedding rehearsal in the days leading up to the actual wedding. It’s a common
custom to host a rehearsal dinner for all of your guests after the wedding
rehearsal but if you’ve already started looking into the catering for your wedding,
you’ll know that it’s going to be quite expensive to put on a full dinner. The
cost of weddings these days is very high and a lot of people struggle to cover
everything. The rehearsal dinner is another expense that you could probably do
without and it’s not exactly the most important part of the day. But if your
guests have taken the time to come to the rehearsal, it’s only polite to put
something on for them. If you’re struggling to cover the costs of a full
rehearsal dinner, here are some cheaper alternatives that everybody will enjoy.
BBQ
If
you’re having a summer wedding and the weather is nice, it’d be a shame to have
everybody stuck indoors anyway so why not have a BBQ? It’s not that expensive
to get a load of food for the BBQ so you can feed everybody for a fraction of
the price of a full catered dinner. If you have the rehearsal in the morning,
you can get everybody back to your house for some food in the afternoon. Hosting
it at your own place means you won’t be paying for a venue for the evening
either. A lot of people are even choosing to host their wedding reception at home
for the same reasons. If you’re really struggling to cover the costs, you could
even host a bit of a pot luck and ask people to bring some food along with
them.
Cocktail Party
If
you still want to have an elegant evening affair for your guests after the
rehearsal but you can’t cover the cost of a full sit down meal, why not have a
cocktail party instead? You can hire some professional bar staff to make drinks
for your guests and get a cocktail party catering
company to do some canapes for people to eat. Everybody still gets something to
eat and drink and you can have a nice evening with your wedding party but
you’re not spending anywhere near as much as you would if you paid for a meal
for everybody.
Pizza Party
Having
a BBQ at your house is a great way to save money but it doesn’t really work in
the winter and it’s also a lot of work to do as well, unless you hire people to
cook the food which defeats the point of doing it in the first place. A good
winter alternative is to have a pizza party instead. There
shouldn’t be too many of you there so you won’t need to buy that many pizzas to
feed everybody. Just get a few drinks in and you’ve got a great low key
alternative to a formal wedding rehearsal dinner.
Brunch
If
you’re having the rehearsal in the morning, you should be done in time to make it for brunch. You can still go to a
nice restaurant to eat but breakfast food is going to be quite a bit cheaper
than a full evening meal. You can also have some nice brunch cocktails to make
it extra special. Getting the rehearsal done in the morning and then having brunch
afterwards leaves the rest of the afternoon and evening free as well so you can
make preparations for the actual wedding. That’s a big help if you’re having
the wedding rehearsal the day before the wedding itself.
Cook Your Own Food
Buying
pizza or having a big BBQ is a lot cheaper than a traditional rehearsal dinner
but if you want to do it even cheaper, you should consider inviting people back
to yours and cooking up some of your own food.
It doesn’t have to be anything too fancy, you can do large one pot meals and
get everybody to help themselves. Buy some cheap drinks in for everybody and
you’ve got a party. Cooking fresh food on a large scale is so much cheaper than
buying it in. If you’re too busy on the day sorting everything else out for the
rehearsal you could ask a family member if they can help out.
Beer Or Wine Tasting
A
beer or wine tasting makes for a fun change from the normal rehearsal dinner.
You’re all going to be sitting down for dinner together at the wedding anyway
so there’s no reason why you can’t skip the rehearsal dinner altogether and do
something else. Organizing a fun activity for your wedding party is a great way
to say thank you for all of their hard work in the lead up to the big day. Most
local breweries will offer a beer tasting day, they’re not usually that
expensive, somewhere in the region of $10-$20 per person. Compared to the cost
of a rehearsal dinner, that’s a bit more manageable. You could make it even
cheaper by hosting your own at home.
If you get everybody together for a tasting afternoon you could then go out for
some food afterwards as an optional extra, just make it clear that you aren’t
going to be paying for that. A lot of your friends will be happy to come and
pay for their own meal considering you covered the cost of the afternoon
activities so you can still enjoy a nice meal together.
You’re
going to have a traditional sit down meal at the wedding anyway so there’s no
need to have one after the rehearsal as well. There are plenty of cheaper
options that will be just as fun for everybody. Just make sure that you think
carefully about your guests and what they would like so you can pick an option
that works for everybody.
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