Woo Hoo! Rehearsal Dinner BBQ!
August 1st, 2008 @ 11:09 am by Mrs. Gingerbread
As I mentioned in my previous post, we were late to our own rehearsal dinner. Fortunately, we have the most generous landlord/friend who took over and had everything done by the time we arrived. Before stepping in and saving the day, he’d already used his seafood hook-up to get us fresh crab and salmon at a great price, gone grocery shopping with us and called over his chef friend to make some marinades the night before. He even decorated and surprised us with two amazingly delicious cakes for dessert. All night our guests were asking to be his tenants.
Mark hard at work while we rehearsed and sat in traffic.
The party was in full swing by the time we walked through the door. I obviously didn’t need to bust out the ice breaker game that I’d made for the party. Everyone was mingling and breaking their own ice! 
The night ended around a backyard fire.
If you have friends and family flying in to your wedding that you haven’t seen in long time, I highly recommend the all-guests-invited rehearsal dinner! Walking into the house and seeing our loved ones was really overwhelming and I am glad that we didn’t save that experience for the wedding ceremony. It was really great to be able to catch up in a relaxed house party atmosphere. It was also really fun to have party favours in the form of OOT bags for all in attendance.
We had such a great time hanging out with everyone at our house. It really set the tone for the kind of wedding weekend we wanted, celebrating friendship and love in a laid back, down home manner.
Next up: The big day!
* all photos by our guests: Jim, Danielle, and Miss Sweet Tea
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7 Responses to “Woo Hoo! Rehearsal Dinner BBQ!”
“If you have friends and family flying in to your wedding that you haven’t seen in long time, I highly recommend the all-guests-invited rehearsal dinner! Walking into the house and seeing our loved ones was really overwhelming and I am glad that we didn’t save that experience for the wedding ceremony. It was really great to be able to catch up in a relaxed house party atmosphere.”
DITTO DITTO DITTO!!!!!
I’m doing an all-guests-invited rehearsal dinner, and a post like this only makes me happier about my decision! Looks like you guys had a great time.
Your landlord ROCKS!
and this seriously has me considering an everyone rehearsal dinner.
Oh that looks like it was SO much fun!! Love that photo of the whole group!!
That looks so great! We also had the all-OOT-guests-invited RD, which was wonderful. Even better (since our RD was at a nice restaurant) we had a BBQ at my parents’ house the night before the RD - most OOT-ers were here that early. So we had two nice dinners, one kick-back and one a little more formal, with our OOT friends before the craziness that was the wedding. Which was good, because as it is I still feel like I didn’t get to spend enough time with them.
I’m doing an all-guests-invited rehearsal dinner as well! 45 people and couting. Our families are meeting for the first time.
Mrs. 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).
Looks like so much fun!