I just got home from our bbq where my FI's family and mine met. They had met informally before, but have never really spent any time together, so I was a bit nervous for today!
First off, FI and I both come from divorced families. So having all of the different sets of families come together was a big deal. (To make it simple, we just did immediate family and grandparents, which still ended up being about 30 people). Plus, all of his family is from the suburbs, and they came out to my family's farm.
We had some snacks and drinks on the porch, and they had a "man tent" set up near the smoker that my step-dad built and used to cook all the pork (yum, my fave!) and chicken.
His two families got a chance to reconnect, and my family was all over the place. They did get a chance to get to know my grandma, mom, ex-step-mom, step-dad, and step-grandma all a little better. Plus, it was great just getting an excuse to see all my different sets of family.
After dinner, we took a hayrack ride around our country "neighborhood" so they could see where my parent's house, grandma's house, and aunt's house all were. We finished off the night with smores and fireworks!
Overall, I think it was a pretty successful day. I'm happy everyone was able to come and get to know each other before the wedding. Hopefully you all have similar success stories!