Rehearsal Dinners

suz62984

Yes, I know this is a MOG thing(she's fully paying for this); however she lives out of town and has asked for help.

How late is it to book a rehearsal dinner place? On my TK checklist it says i'm way behind on this. I sent my FMIL information on venues/restaurants here but she hasn't even looked at it yet. I'm not stressed, I have 6 months, but I was just wondering when everyone thought we should have the venue booked by.

tidetravel

Six months sounds really early to me.

mbcdefg

We only finalized our place a month ago (wedding's this weekend). And it's really casual so I just called up and said, "I'm coming there with a max of 20 people on April 9, is that cool?" We don't need a definite head count, we'll just order food once we get there. We're also paying for it ourselves, so we made the decision on when/where to book.

People on my local usually book a lot earlier, but I think they're also choosing fancier places that *need* a reservation (one girl once asked for reommendations where she could spend $100/pp ... YIPES!). Plus many people near me have very large dinners, maybe 50-100 people if they're including OOT guests. Which is fine if that's what you want, but we wanted something very casual, so we're going to a casual place where we can get pizza and finger food appetizers. We also live in a very high-density area, so certain places can book up fast, so sometimes you DO need to make a reservation for a big party earlier.

I would ask FMIL what she has in mind. If she wants something on the more formal side, like a sit-down dinner, I'd try and nail something down within the next two-three months. If she is looking for something casual, you have lots of time, so take your time to find something.

rands09

Six months does sound a little early...we booked ours a month and a half to two months out!

gottahavashorti

We're at under 2 months and FFIL hasn't booked a place yet and we haven't officially booked a time at the venue either.  So I hope you still have time!

suz62984

Mbc - you need to a mod...have I ever told you that.

Yeah FMIL wants something more formal because she says "she wants to do this right" whatever that means. Between the wedding party and my family members that would attend we have 30. Her family is bigger. We are looking at 50-60 ppl I think.

Another thing is that we are limited to places we can go because there is a big city festival downtown on my wedding weekend. We can't touch any of the awesome venues/restaurants downtown which stinks!

xoxob

We are starting to look and price out places now, but not make any final decisions. Mostly because in the area I'm getting married a lot of places have "2010" pricing.

I also want to give my FMIL a year....so at least that way when I complain to my FI about how I'm organizing everything and rushing around and bitching about how I have enough on my plate. He can't say "Well, my mom didn't know in time." (classic FMIL, CLASSIC!) I will be able to say "We gave her a year and a list of three restaurants." (FMIL is just the Queen of 'I'll totally take care of this...OMG look, a butterfly!')

SarahPLiz

We are probably just using a conference room at the hotel where most of our guests will be and having pizza delivered by our fave place. We are paying for it. I know, I'm no help.

emilyinchile

6 months is wayyyy in advance unless you're planning on having it at a venue that typically books up that far ahead - which I know probably sounds obvious, but I just mean that you don't need to look at it now if it's going to be at a restaurant, but if you're having a huge deal at a place that could be a wedding venue, for example, that would require more advance notice. Because of the festival you mentioned, I might suggest to FMIL that she at least call a couple potential places to ask when they recommend making a reservation just because it sounds like there's going to be a lot of demand for other events.

aerinpegadrak

Dude, my wedding's in two weeks and I haven't booked the rehearsal lunch yet.  But we're just ordering from an Italian fast food place that I love that does super cheap catering, and we can book it up to 24 hours out.  I'm guessing we're not going to need much more lead time than that on the cake we're getting, either.

I don't think this is something you need to be panicking about getting done, but you should aim to have it squared away in the next month or two.  The think with this item on TK's checklist is that it has "start planning the rehearsal dinner" and then no other references to it further down the line.  So I still haven't checked that off, even though we know exactly what we want and are just waiting to place our order.

suz62984

I'm not panicking or stressing. I just wanted to know of a general timeline since I don't know much about that sorta thing. The FMIL was cheap all her life and now has tons of money. I could care less what we do (most laid back bride ever) but she wants to show off her money and status. She wants more of a "Formal wedding venue" for 50-60 people. I'm just thinking they may get booked esp with the city wide festival going on but she hasn't looked so oh well.  Thanks for the timeline ladies!