Miss Gingerbread, Vancouver
Age and Occupation: 32, Psychologist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Software Engineer
Engagement Date: Sometime in the fall of 2004
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 24, 2008
Venue: Rainforest wedding, beachfront restaurant reception
About Me: I recently moved to Canada from Southern California. Trying to plan a wedding in a new city, not to mention a new country, is tough, but the fact that we can get legally married here more than makes up for it! The wedding will be an opportunity for most of our family and friends to see our new city for the first time so it will be both a wedding and a reunion. Besides my future wife, I am also madly in love with a good bargain, Swedish pastries, Tivo, and my two dogs and calico cat (in no particular order).
The Housewarming Rehearsal Dinner
May 9th, 2008 @ 2:11 pm by Miss Gingerbread
Obviously, I’m looking forward to my wedding day, but what I’m really excited about is the day before the wedding! Since we only recently moved to Vancouver, most of our guests haven’t seen where we live, so we’ve decided to do a BBQ/housewarming /rehearsal dinner! All of our guests will be invited.
I’m super excited about this pre-wedding party because there is no pressure. It’ll just be a fun opportunity to hang out with some of our favourite people at our house. We’ll probably serve BBQ, beer, and cupcakes. Mmmm. I’m digging the contrast between our informal “rehearsal” dinner and our more formal wedding reception. I also like the cost saving properties of this plan. Plus it’ll be a nice opportunity for everyone to meet each other before the wedding.This seems like a good (random) opportunity to introduce you to the Gingerbread kids 
Hannah is the queen of the house.
Abby and Henry are angels when they’re sleeping.
Okay, back to weddings… Is anyone else doing something super laid back for their rehearsal dinner or wedding?
25 Responses to “The Housewarming Rehearsal Dinner”
Haha I never even posted about mine because I thought it was too laid back for the hive to handle. Because our wedding was in the middle of nowhere, we rented out several houses from other parts of my family and put almost all of our guests up in one of those houses. So the day before the wedding, we just had a big party (for all guests) at the biggest house, and gave people directions to the grocery store and everyone cooked together! It was so much fun and has been cited by a ton of our guests as one of their favorite parts of the wedding - just that it felt like everyone was one big family relaxing together instead of a formal event. So I whole heartedly support the ubercasual “rehearsal” dinner! Sounds like so much fun!
And I want your cat and your dogs. Yes, all three!
Those are both really creative and very cost effective suggestions. Saving money is actually more exciting than all of the pomp and circumstance, so a casual rehearsal dinner that serves two purposes actually sounds like a good time in the making……
We are doing something very similar to what you are doing. We move to Portland 2 yrs ago and 95% of our guest are from OOT. So they will all be at our house the night before and have dinner in our backyard. We are getting a roasted pig from one for the Chinese restaurants, probably do a couple of cedar plank salmons on the grill, have some easy sides and like you cupcakes. We know that the wedding will go by way to fast so this is a great way for us to spend time with our family and friends. FI really didn’t want that many people at the rehearsal dinner but I think he is coming around.
We had dinner with just our folks (we didn’t have a wedding party) at one of my favourite restaurants/pubs and then invited everyone to come join us for drinks (my in-laws, who are big drinkers, picked up the tab). It was a wonderfully relaxed way to get to see everyone before the wedding.
We’re in the planning process. We’re only having a wedding party, immediate family, and our 1 out of town guest…. 20 tops. We’re looking into Italian restaurants. Laid back but I want at least a private room so I can properly thank everyone instead of yelling in a busy restaurant without a private room.
My fiance’s parents really have no money at all to help with anything wedding related. Rather than have a fancy dinner or go out to a restaurant, we’re going to have a BBQ at the lodge we’re staying at. It’s fairly close to home so his family can bring stuff for a potluck and his mom can make a cake. My family will provide the meat and drinks. This way his family can feel like they are able to help - it’s important to me that they not feel left out.
Definitely, and it was so nice. We basically gathered around at my guy’s dad’s house, ate bbq, practice our ceremony, and joked quite a bit. There was a sheet cake with a little bride and groom, tasty beverages and lots of good bbq. The best part was me not worrying about a thing. Oh, and it was five days before the wedding instead the day before.
You just answered my post about this on the boards, I wish mine would be more laid back so I am way envious! Anyway, a couple things, LOVE your kitty, our kitties are the kings of our house, puppies are too cute, and I have the same couch 
We’re doing something very similar! We just moved into our new house and the wedding’s at the end of this month, so we’re going to invite everyone over for a housewarming/rehearsal dinner. We’ll probably buy a roast pig and order trays of food. It’ll be nice to be able to talk to all of our out of town guests before the actual wedding because I know we’ll be super busy the day of.
Are you going to rent chairs and tables for everyone? Do you think we need to have a seat at a table for everyone since it’s casual?
I’m so excited about this. Thanks for sharing your plans with me. It’s just fueling my enthusiasm for low key family-style get together!
@Jasmine: Nope, no rentals and no set tables! Super casual! We’ll probably borrow chairs from friends, but I expect that many people will end up sitting on the stairs.
@LeahB: Gotta love Ikea! What I love even more is that we got ours in the “as is” section for 1/3 of the price. I am gonna be known as the “cheap bee” from here on out
@Jodi: In our case, we’re having a restaurant reception so that’s another reason for the at home rehersal dinner. Otherwise it feels like we are competing with our reception.
@Mrs. Bluebell: That sounds like so much fun! I hesitated to share this idea myself, because it’s so unsophisticated. Oh well, I’m glad I did, especially since this is one of the things I am most excited about
I just want to let you know that I’m definitely going to make that watermelon thing in the picture you posted for a work BBQ I’m going to tomorrow! Way to be super helpful!!
I think it is awesome that you found a way to cost-effectively invite everyone to the rehearsal dinner. I have been to weddings where I was an out-of-town guest but not invited to the rehearsal dinner because it was too expensive to host all the out-of-towners and I was definitely offended. Major lack of wedding ettiquite if you ask me. I think it is customary to host everyone who traveled to the wedding, right? I have always enjoyed BBQs or informal house-gatherings more anyway, so there are ways to include everyone that don’t cost an arm and a leg! I am sure your guests will have a great time seeing your new place and hanging out with your adorable pets!
We are having our rehearsal dinner at a bowling alley in town (walking distance from the main hotel) - pizza buffet and bowling for all. I’m so excited - we are having a big fancy wedding (well, I consider it big and fancy, but it’s probably pretty small and plain compared to some), so I didn’t want the rehearsal to be all formal. Plus, my fiance’s parents were worried about the cost, so this was a great way to have fun and save money!
@Becky: Bowling and pizza sounds AWESOME!
@Glamagrrrl: Since our guests are having to travel with passports across international borders, I figure the least we can do is hang out with them and feed them Plus, I love informal gatherings and I doubt we’ll ever be lucky enough to have all of our close friends and family over at the same time ever again now that we live in Canada.
I went to a friend’s wedding last fall that was exactly that. There were ice down buckets full of beer options, her dad behind the grill, and the radio on in the background. It was FANTASTIC!!!!!! We were so thrilled to be able to see the couple all laid back and really hang out as friends instead of “guests”. We stole the idea and will be doing the same thing. =)
Ooh I like this idea! We just moved as well - and having a housewarming party in between showers and a wedding seems….selfish! So your combo is the perfect compromise.
ps - we were going to do our potluck style (1/3 of the crew will be local) - but that almost gave my mother (much more proper than me) a heart attack. So it’ll be catered. ah well.
The FILs are really excited about the bistro across the street from the Inn where most folks are staying, so no laid-back rehearsal for us. That said, since so many of our family are flying in early (up to two weeks in advance for some - thanks, mom!), we may try to have a backyard grill on Thursday for some pre-rehearsal fun times.
@Miss Gingerbread: @Mrs. Bluebell: I love those ideas! If we have our wedding near my parents house I’m tempted to do a BBQ as a rehearsal dinner, that we we can include more ppl in the dinner. I love the idea of the guest getting to know the other guests before the wedding, it make the reception more fun for everyone
We’re going to do a BBQ rehearsal as well, I really wanted to have it at my grandparents house but my parents are divorced and do not get along - so we picked a neutral zone - a beautiful park nearby the chapel.
We’re going to have the local BBQ place cater it (since most guests are OOT, even us) and play cornhole, washers, horseshoes, and other fun games then sit back and relax!
@Luxe: your response is basically what I was going to say! We bought our house in Portland last year, but the majority of our family hasn’t seen it yet, so our at-home rehearsal dinner will be our second housewarming.
My FI parents will be doing the food! While that may seem like slave labor to some, they love to cook. They have done the food for two of their other children’s weddings. So having them do our rehearsal dinner was a great way to include them and make them feel at home.
My only concern is dishes! We’ll definitely be going with disposable, since I refuse to be washing dishes on my wedding day!
We’re getting married Memorial weekend (next year), on Sunday. So for Saturday we’re going to do a big Memorial cookout at a local park. We might do real low-key style with burgers, hot dogs, etc., if there are any family members who feel like manning a grill all day. Or, we might get it catered by a local BBQ joint. Yum! Casual and fun, a great combo!
@Erin: Oh yeah dishes. Our landlord volunteered to be our butler for the weekend. I wonder if butlers do dishes
I am super excited about our RD. I am going to write about it soon, but it is beer, bowling and burgers. It is so “us,” probably even more so than our reception. We are planning on inviting quite a few people, too, even though most of our guests live in the Chicago area. I can’t wait! My dog would totally be there, if it didn’t violate the health code at the restaurant. It will be so nice for everyone to get to know your new home and all your kids
We’re having a BBQ at the same campsite we’re getting married at for our rehearsal dinner. We inviting all the wedding guests to it, but I bet only a handful will take me up on it.
