The Night Before

The Night Before

November 1st, 2010 @ 2:35 pm by Ms. Sloth
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Since I started perusing wedding forums and blogs on a daily basis, one thing that’s surprised me is how fancy rehearsal dinners have become.

I’ve only been in two wedding parties, and both of them were over 10 years ago. But one rehearsal dinner was a crab-boil party at the groom’s parents’ house, and the other was in a private room of a bar where we had things like chicken fingers and domestic draft beer. Both of them were a lot of fun.

Now, though, I’m seeing things that I can’t believe. Brides are wearing $400 cocktail dresses to their rehearsal dinners! Creating Gocco invitations to send out! Reserving four-star restaurants!

I’m not judging. I think a fancy rehearsal dinner sounds like a lot of fun, and I would enjoy attending one.

But you bet your ass I’m not throwing one!

I want the night before the wedding to be as stress free as possible. I want everyone to meet and mingle—our parents have met several times, but nobody else in our families has. I want everyone to eat and drink and relax because the next day is going to be a doozy. And I want it to be as cheap as possible.

So, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re going to go back to our house after the rehearsal at Bartram’s. We’re going to order the Naked Burrito Bar from Qdoba, which is only ten bucks per person or so.

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We’re going to buy a crapload of Mexican beer.

The Night Before : wedding philadelphia rehearsal Mexican mexican

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And I’m going to make a giant jug of my Hillbilly Sangria.*

The Night Before : wedding philadelphia rehearsal 200713 200713_

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We’re going to stuff our faces, drink, and hang out at our home. I’ll probably wear a light summer dress and flat sandals. I think it’s going to be incredibly fun, and I already can’t wait!

Did you have a fancy rehearsal dinner or a casual one?

*Hillbilly Sangria Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

1 large jug cheap red wine (I like Carlo Rossi Paisano)

1 can frozen fruit punch concentrate

2 cups vodka

1 can Mountain Dew or Sprite (See, I told you it was hillbilly.)

A lot of fresh fruit, cut up (I usually use lemons, limes, oranges and apples. You can put anything you have in there.)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Mix all ingredients except for the soda in a large jug, punch bowl, pitcher, etc.

Let sit for several hours or overnight.

Right before serving, add soda, stir, and pour over ice.

Tags: philadelphia, rehearsal |

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38 Responses to “The Night Before”

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Member

mightywombat (message) 3,345 posts, Sugar bee

In between - it’ll be really small, since we’re not having a wedding party. Probably 12-15 people. So we’re just making reservations at a local Italian place. It will be interesting - me and FI, his parents, his bro and sis-in-law, my mom and stepdad, my dad and stepmom, and my stepsister and her girlfriend. Plus whoever we have officiate, I guess.

I know everyone involved, and my mom and stepdad know FI well and have met his parents once. But my dad, stepmom, stepsis, and her gf have never met FI or his family. Nobody has anything in common. Should be interesting! I just hope it’s fun and not super awkward. But the meeting of his parents and my mom/stepdad went much better than I feared, so it will probably be fine.

11/1/10 @ 2:41 pm (reply)

Member

October4040 (message) 118 posts, Blushing bee

I had no money for a rehearsal dinner and no one had offered to pay for one, so I wasn’t planning to have one at all. At the rehearsal my MIL said she would pay if we wanted to go out to eat. (Yep, nobody had decided this any sooner - haha.) There were about 10 of us and we all headed to Applebee’s. I wore jeans.

11/1/10 @ 2:41 pm (reply)

Member

CorgiTales (message) 9,901 posts, Bee Keeper

Sounds great! And I’m with you… I don’t want (or can’t afford) a reception-lite for a rehearsal dinner. We’re making a reservation at a local irish pub that has a free (for a $300 min food/bar bill) private room. There will be no fancy decorations… just good food, good beer, and good people.

11/1/10 @ 2:43 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Hermit Crab (message) 3,566 posts, Sugar bee

we really really really wanted to have ours at a ny pizza place but my dad kiboshed that one pretty quick - so we went for semi-casual at a delicious italian restaurant - still pretty relaxed!

11/1/10 @ 2:43 pm (reply)

Member

kjwinter (message) 209 posts, Helper bee

that sounds really really fun. i wanted to do something low key- my dream was chickie’s and pete’s for crab fries and beer, but my future in-laws who are proudly hosting, are not “fun” type of people- they like things that are very fancy and maybe a little stuffy. We compromised with a family style feast as Estia, a fancy Greek restaurant. But eating plain foods, like whole fish and salad, is definitely a lot less fancy than the second wedding they were pushing, with a 3 course meal at the Union League. So, we’ll do a fancy rehearsal dinner, and we’re hosting a very very VERY lowkey welcome party for our friends the night before. So I’ll get my beer and chicken wings after all!

11/1/10 @ 2:48 pm (reply)

Member

KaitlinHudson (message) 1,131 posts, Bumble bee

Love this recipe! Will definitely be using this in the future And I agree with you about the ridiculous rehearsal dinners. We are keeping things simple and cheap as well!

11/1/10 @ 2:51 pm (reply)

Member

aandmklover (message) 390 posts, Helper bee

We had ours at a Local Pizza Place (Buddy’s Pizza) in the back room. It was so us… laid back and so much fun!

My brother got married a year before us and theirs was way more fancy. I like that we did different but fun things.

11/1/10 @ 2:52 pm (reply)

Member

Violet Violet (message) 985 posts, Busy bee

Thanks for the recipe. I haven’t thought about the rehearsal dinner yet, but I’m hoping it’s more casual.

11/1/10 @ 2:56 pm (reply)

Member

peachybride (message) 124 posts, Blushing bee

We had a backyard BBQ (catered BBQ… so my MIL didn’t have to COOK for everyone, but still laid back BBQ type atmosphere) at my husband’s family home. It was very chill - eating and drinking and sundresses and shorts and flip flops! Yours sounds like it will be absolutely perfect - it was SO great to just relax the night before the big day!

11/1/10 @ 2:57 pm (reply)

10.

Member

missbiscuit (message) 1,050 posts, Bumble bee

We’ll likely keep it simple like this, too. I didn’t want anything fancy, anyway, but the sheer amount of people that could potentially be invited would bump the cost up anyway. My FI’s dad (traditionally the person who would cover the rehearsal dinner) hasn’t said boo about paying for anything, so my mom has started to plan one of her own with just the wedding party, and then we may meet up with my family later just for drinks or something.

11/1/10 @ 3:08 pm (reply)

11.

Guest

Christine

The recipe sounds awesome! We didn’t even host a rehearsal dinner since, well we was broke. We just had my immediate family and a few of our closest friends and we ate at an Italian restaurant. Nicer dress, but we did get legally married immediately before the dinner, so you know, justified, but also the dress was like $70 from a Macy’s sale rack and black and white, and well, it was all perfect. If we had the money we would have hosted, but instead we made our friends pay for their own food and drinks, not that it was expensive. All told I think there were 12 of us.

11/1/10 @ 3:10 pm (reply)

12.

Guest

Kassie

We had a large wedding party. And with my parents married and divorced numerous times…let’s just say there were a lot of parents there too lol. We were very very lucky to win a rehearsal dinner at one of the bridal shows we went to. It was at a country club…but…let’s see. When you hear country club you probably think stuffy, however…. This place hasn’t been updated since the 70’s, when you pull up outside it looks like a bowling alley…and the golf course is now open to the public in the ghetto. Hahahahaha. The food was great, don’t get me wrong…and better yet it was free, but it was no taj mahal. We found it to be quite hysterical…and so did our guests! ahahahahahaha. All we were missing was shag carpet.

Had we not won, I’m sure we would have ended up in someone’s backyard and done a potluck…which would have been just as fun.

11/1/10 @ 3:13 pm (reply)

13.

Member

crayfish (message) 4,993 posts, Honey bee

Oh, HELLLLLLLL yes! This is awesome. I wanted to do something like this for our San DIego wedding, but by the time I got around to it, all the good Mexican places were booked :-(. We ended up doing a lounge-style party at a Japanese restaurant, which was equally awesome, and not nearly as outrageously expensive as the sit-down restaurants ($110 a head for some chicken mashed potatoes, and mixed veggies? Um, NO, I don’t care if you’re “French”!)

11/1/10 @ 3:15 pm (reply)

14.

Bee

Mrs. Octopus (message) 1,446 posts, Bumble bee

We kept our rehearsal dinner as low-key as possible, and it was AWESOME. Due to our large families/wedding party, we had about 40 people, but it was really relaxed and mingle-y. It was at my bridesmaid’s parents’ house. The entire thing was less than $20/pp, and that included booze, dessert, dinner, and flatware/plates/etc. And, for what it’s worth, LOTS of people commented on how much they enjoyed the relaxed, casual atmosphere!

11/1/10 @ 3:24 pm (reply)

15.

Member

lil2685 (message) 12 posts, Newbee

sounds yummy!

11/1/10 @ 3:36 pm (reply)

16.

Member

MUI831 (message) 728 posts, Busy bee

We are lucky to have FI’s family planning and hosting the rehearsal dinner and they were wanting to plan the heck out of it. His father was really wanting to have an old school traditional steak dinner and was willing to pay for it. Like ready to shell out $5k for it. I thought this was ridiculous and was able to convince them to do something cheaper but still really nice. Now if they want to “donate” their savings to the wedding fund, I wouldn’t object. . .

11/1/10 @ 3:40 pm (reply)

17.

Member

NotYourTypicalBride (message) 1,294 posts, Bumble bee

We’re having a semi-destination wedding on a Friday night and also hosting a casual “recovery dinner” (pork roast on the beach) on Saturday night for any guests who choose to stay for the entire weekend.

A handful of people (maybe 15 or so) will arrive sometime Thursday evening. This includes some of my oldest friends traveling from far away, so I don’t want to leave them hanging for dinner. But honestly, the budget doesn’t allow for a third hosted dinner! I’m thinking of “ordering in” pizza, pasta and salad to keep the cost manageable.

11/1/10 @ 3:53 pm (reply)

18.

Member

eeper (message) 486 posts, Helper bee

We had to pay ourselves and we had a pretty large wedding party, and we couldn’t do it at home. So we had a cocktail party at a local martini bar! Everyone loved all the hors d’oeuvres & apps. There was a ton of food, and everybody got to mingle. It was definitely different compared to all the other sit-down RD’s I have been to!

11/1/10 @ 4:10 pm (reply)

19.

Member

kirabee (message) 1,402 posts, Bumble bee

Be careful with the hillbilly sangria, it gives you one hell of a hangover!!

11/1/10 @ 4:36 pm (reply)

20.

Member

yoori (message) 231 posts, Helper bee

Yummmm We’ll be going the same route! The only places I’ve seen the mini-wedding-rehearsal-dinners is in the blogosphere, and as drool-worthy as they are, we don’t have the funds, energy, or the desire to do that. We just wanna have a low-key drink with our friends and family!

11/1/10 @ 4:40 pm (reply)

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