Rehearsal Dinner

musicjailbird7

My FMIL and FFIL offered to pay for the rehearsal dinner for our June wedding. My parents offered to pay for the actual wedding itself, since they knew FI and I couldn't afford a wedding at all. 

I've been very understanding about their budgets (all four of them), and have made no demands or requests that were over the top or unncessesary. In fact, I haven't made any demands except that my dad can only bring one date (parents are divorced). 

FMIL and FFIL are very nice to me, and almost always have been. But they've made it fairly clear that they can't really afford to cover the whole rehearsal dinner. We told them not to worry, we'd help take care of it, and asked them what their budget was so we could plan it out with them of how much we could contribute. 

Since then they've not gotten back to me on it and I'm getting slightly nervous. My wedding is 2 and half months from now, so it's no rush, however I'm worried that they can't actually afford to contribute, which would be fine, but what if I'll have to figure it out at the last minute and we won't be able to really throw one. Just in case this scenario plays out, does anyone have any ideas for a cheap, easy rehearsal dinner? The guest list would be 40 and it's in Los Angeles. Really any ideas would be helpful. Thank you!

lalaweddingdiva

Tryyou local board. Can u do a BBQ/ bonfire on the beach in la? I know u can in Huntington/orange county...Do u have a lot of out of town guests! U can prob have one of the local burger places cater it like Rubys or in-n-out cater it!? Not sure what u are going for, but bring a couple coolers and that sounds fun!

pgcp

I've attended a rehearsal dinner that was pizza and soda in the church fellowship hall.  It was lovely because of the company we were with. 

If I was you, I'd plan what I could afford to pay for and then if they come through with the money they offered, just thank them and put the money I saved into a future project.

HockeyFan4

I am not a very "fancy" resturant person, my H is somewhat shy in certain situations,  and my MIL insisted on paying for the rehersal dinner, even though I know she doesn't really have a lot of money.

So we had a backyard bbq.  My MIL and I went shopping at Costco and spent approx $200 on food and alcohol for about 30 people.  We had steak tips, chicken wings, hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, pasta salad, sausages, tossed salad, chips, desserts, beer, water, soda.

It was nice and relaxing, and great spending time with everyone.  I think it was especially nice for my neices and nephews (who were ring bearers and flower girls) because they got to run around and play.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

Specifically in LA, the following places I have found to be fairly cheap and easy to cater:

Subway
Quiznos
Daphne's Greek Cafe
Baja Fresh
Capriottis (encino and beverly hills)

The issue might be finding a place to accomodate 40 people. If you are getting married in a church, you can probably use the fellowship hall or another room. Parks are a good idea (contact LA parks and rec to reserve a picnic shelter near you). There's a VFW hall in Hollywood if that's close to you - and I'm sure there are others.