Summer Rehearsal Dinner Ideas
For beach weddings, there can be no better rehearsal dinner than a clambake right on the sand. If clam is not quite your thing, substitute a crab feast, lobster bake, or shrimp boil; other than the main dish, they are all pretty much the same to plan. Picnic tables right on the beach would be the perfect dinner seating. Either cover the tables with pretty patterned oilcloth or do what they do for a good ol’ fashioned clambake or crab feast and just cover the tables with layers of newspaper. Finish off your rehearsal dinner with a favorite summer dessert like homemade peach pie or strawberry shortcake.
A wonderful idea for an elegant summer rehearsal dinner is a Great Gatsby inspired lawn party. Picture all the ladies in their lightweight summer dresses sipping icy mint juleps. Simple accessories like a tin cup necklace will be the perfect ornament for this outdoor soiree. Imagine gentlemen in seersucker trousers playing croquet on a lush green lawn. Add a spread of delicious summer foods like salads, grilled chicken, and tasty fresh veggies for a meal that will be enjoyable but not too heavy.
A super fun summer rehearsal dinner theme is a luau. Welcome your family and friends with slushy tropical drinks like daiquiris and pina colodas, complete with paper umbrellas and fruit garnishes. Hand out leis and encourage guests to wear Hawaiian print shirts or dresses to really get everyone into the spirit. Pork skewers with pineapple are a crowd-friendly dinner for your luau, and are really easy to make if you are doing your own grilling. A luau theme is sure to be a great icebreaker when the two sides of the family are meeting for the first time at the rehearsal dinner.
A great rehearsal dinner that anyone can plan is a picnic in a park. This is a theme that can be designed to fit your taste and style. It could be very elegant, with chilled Champagne, hampers of gourmet foods, and portable cd players wafting classical music into the background to create ambiance. A picnic can also be very relaxed, with burgers on the grill, potato salad, and watermelon on the menu, either in a state park or at a shelter in a park close to the rest of the events. Be sure to bring plenty of citronella candles to keep bugs at bay as dusk falls so that the party can continue well into the evening.
Filed under Uncategorized, pearl bridal jewelry | Tags: rehearsal dinners, summer rehearsal dinner, tin cup necklace | Comment (0)Casual Chic Rehearsal Dinners
The rehearsal dinner is a wonderful opportunity for the family of the bride and groom to come together the day before the wedding. A relaxed atmosphere is often best, as it allows everyone a chance to mix and mingle before the big day. Take a look at these great ideas for casual chic rehearsal dinners.
For a spring rehearsal dinner, a really cute decoration would be small white ceramic flower pots with handpainted polka dots in lime, pink, yellow, and lilac. Any combination of the colors would work, or select one favorite to use throughout the room. Fill the diminutive pots with flowering bulbs like mini daffodils or hyacinth. Very sweet, but not too formal, perfect for a casual chic rehearsal dinner.
In the summertime, decoration options abound. For a rehearsal dinner at the beach, why not skip flowers and place hurricane lanterns in piles of sand with a few shells on each table? Another idea is to place a bunch of freshly snipped flowers in a casual vessel, such as peonies in a pitcher or hydrangeas in a galvanized tin pail. The elegant flowers and the informal vases will help to create the desired atmosphere of relaxed elegance. Serve great food, like a crab or lobster boil on the beach, along with fresh ears of corn. The food is not fancy, but it is festive, which is ideal.
In the autumn, create a casual chic rehearsal dinner with colorful mums in wicker baskets. Hearty comfort foods prepared well will be crowd favorites. Things like homemade mac-n-cheese and apple pie would be big hits for the dinner menu. In the winter months, create a casual chic party with white branches instead of flowers for the table decorations. Hot cocoa with fresh marshmallows would be a terrific after dinner drink to serve.
Finally, always remember that the bride and groom set the tone for the rehearsal dinner. The bride should definitely wear a cute dress, even if the location is very casual. A white knee length sundress with a simple pair of pearl earrings would be lovely for a warm weather party. In the cooler months, if a dress felt like too much, the bride could choose to wear a beautiful cashmere sweater with a pencil skirt and stylish boots, along with her pearl earrings and a few charm bracelets. As for the groom, he can skip the tie if he wants, but it would look nice to wear a jacket for at least the beginning of the party. With the bride and groom looking so stylish, it will surely be a casual chic rehearsal dinner to remember!
Filed under Uncategorized, pearl bridal jewelry | Tags: pearl earrings, rehearsal dinner decorations, rehearsal dinners | Comment (0)What Happens at a Rehearsal Dinner?
Lots of terms get thrown around during the wedding planning process, but if you are a young bride, you may not have any first hand experience with many of them. People often wonder what the purpose is behind a rehearsal dinner, how to plan one, and what really goes on there. This is an overview of the whole rehearsal dinner process.
First the reason behind the rehearsal dinner: it is a small dinner party that gives the bride’s and groom’s families a chance to get to know one another in an informal setting before the wedding itself. With that purpose in mind, you should definitely plan to invite parents, siblings, and grandparents from both sides. The wedding party is also always on the guest list, and some brides will choose that opportunity to present her attendants with their bridesmaid and flower girl gifts. Frequently, the more extended members of the couple’s families will also be included in the wedding eve party, such as aunts, uncles, and cousins. These days, it is not uncommon to also invite out-of-town guests, with the result that there are almost as many guests at the rehearsal dinner as the wedding reception.
One of the main events of a rehearsal dinner is the speeches. As the party is most often hosted by the groom’s family, it is traditional for the groom’s father to give some sort of toast. It does not need to be anything long, it is mostly a chance to welcome everyone, and to thank the out-of-town guests for making the trip. The groom’s father will conclude his toast by saying a few kind words about the bride and groom and toasting to their future happiness.
Beyond that, the wedding eve dinner is essentially a party like any other. Guests eat, drink, and mingle. They often end early so that everyone will be well rested for the wedding the next day. This has led to a custom where the younger guests often have an after-party at a nightclub, bar, or home after dinner. Just so long as everyone is rested and raring to go the next day, this can be a fun way for the younger guests to get to know one another, which is after all, one of the purposes of a rehearsal dinner.
Filed under Uncategorized, Wedding Jewelry | Tags: flower girl gifts, rehearsal dinners | Comment (0)Rehearsal Dinner Etiquette
It is customary to hold a rehearsal dinner on the evening before a wedding. This event can be as formal or casual as you like, but either way, there are still some basic rules of etiquette that should be observed. Here is what you need to know about rehearsal dinner etiquette.
One of the biggest questions about any part of the wedding is who should be paying for it. Traditionally, the rehearsal dinner is planned and paid for by the groom’s family. This was done to help alleviate some of the financial burden from the bride’s father, who traditionally shouldered the entire burden of the other wedding expenses. These days, the groom’s family is more likely to pitch in with some of the other wedding costs, as are the bride and groom themselves. If the parents of the groom is helping to pay for the rest of the wedding, it is not technically necessary for them to cover all of the costs for the rehearsal dinner, although in most cases, they still will.
The next question is who should be invited to a rehearsal dinner. Etiquette used to be that the guest list for the rehearsal dinner was a small one: the bride and groom, their parents and other immediate family like siblings, and the wedding party. The age old question is whether it is necessary to invite the spouses or significant others of the bridal party, and the answer is yet. A rehearsal dinner is a social event, after all, and it is never appropriate to invite only one half of a married couple to a dinner party.
Something else that couples wonder is if they should be presenting their bridesmaid jewelry gifts and groomsmen gifts at the rehearsal dinner. The answer to this is no. The only thing that goes on at a rehearsal dinner (other than dinner, that is) is a couple of toasts, often from the parents of the bride and groom. Bridesmaid gifts like jewelry are best presented at a bridesmaids’ luncheon which takes place about two days before the wedding.
Planning a rehearsal dinner need not be a very time consuming or stressful thing. It should really be no more than a nice dinner to give the close family and friends of the bride and groom a chance to do a “meet and greet”. Now that you know the rehearsal dinner etiquette, the rest should be easy.
Filed under Bridesmaid Gifts, Bridesmaid Jewelry, Uncategorized | Tags: bridesmaid jewelry gifts, rehearsal dinners, wedding etiquette | Comment (0)Rehearsal Dinner FAQs
When Is It Held? Usually the rehearsal dinner is held shortly after the wedding rehearsal on the day before the wedding itself. Sometimes one event flows directly into the other, although there may also be a lapse of a couple of hours in between. The time of day is important, as well. Ideally, you want to have your rehearsal dinner end fairly early, so that the bride and groom can get plenty of rest for their big day.
Who Should Be Invited? The key players in the rehearsal dinner are the bride and groom, their wedding party, the parents of the bride and groom (in any form or number!), and the officiant and his or her spouse. It is often common to add extended family and out-of-town guests to the list of invitees, as well.
Who Pays For It? The traditional answer was the parents of the groom, and this is still often the case. However, in many families, the old rules about who pays for what at a wedding are no longer strictly observed (which is usually a relief for the bride’s parents, who had to foot the bill for most of the wedding costs).
How Formal Should It Be? The formality of the rehearsal dinner in no way needs to match the level of formality of the wedding. You could be having a very grand black tie wedding with all of your guests in tuxedos, gowns, and their best wedding jewelry. That does not mean that your rehearsal dinner the day before the wedding can’t be a clam bake on the beach. In fact, a more relaxed atmosphere can be ideal for letting both sides of the family get to know one another better before the wedding.
