Everything You Need to Know about a Wedding Rehearsal Dinner

The wedding rehearsal dinner often gets overshadowed by the excitement and necessary planning for the big day. However, when the day of your wedding rehearsal dinner arrives, you’ll realize that it’s a major event in your wedding weekend. You’ll have a quick “hello” with your wedding party before your ceremony rehearsal begins, but the wedding rehearsal dinner is where you get to actually reconnect with your besties and family and kickoff the wedding festivities! Keep reading to learn more about rehearsal dinners and why you should consider getting rehearsal dinner video coverage.

What is a Wedding Rehearsal?

The wedding rehearsal typically takes place the afternoon or evening before the wedding at the ceremony location. The couple, wedding party and anyone who is reading, singing or playing at the actual ceremony should be invited. 

There’s a tradition of the maid of honor creating a bouquet of bows out of the ribbons from the gifts you’ve received at your bridal shower, if you had one. Every ribbon you break, as opposed to pulling off in one piece, is supposed to signify another child being born during your marriage. If you’ve participated in this tradition, the maid of honor should bring the bow bouquet with her for you to hold during your rehearsal.

The officiant, rabbi or priest will tell everyone where to begin the ceremony, where to stand during and where to exit. He or she will also let you know how the ceremony will proceed. You’ll typically do a slow walk through with all of the explanations, followed by a quick run through.

Transportation to the Wedding Rehearsal Dinner

Most couples head directly to the wedding rehearsal dinner location following the ceremony rehearsal. You can ride with your partner or hop in with your wedding party and start the celebration by blasting your favorite tunes in the car! 

Rehearsal Dinner Details

Wedding rehearsal dinners can be formal or casual. I’ve been to parties ranging from a barn with barbeque, wine and beer to a very fancy one at a white-tablecloth restaurant with assigned seating and formal attire. Either way, you can feel the excitement in the air as the logistics of the rehearsal fade away and the big weekend begins with cocktails, delicious food, reunions and toasts from whoever would like to speak.

Who pays for a wedding rehearsal dinner?

Traditionally, the groom’s parents pay for the rehearsal dinner. As you know by now, there’s no wrong way to split up a wedding budget so the wedding rehearsal dinner can be covered by you two, split between both sets of parents or gifted from either set of parents. 

Who is invited to the rehearsal dinner?

Just like the actual wedding, whoever pays controls the guest list, but it typically just includes you two, the wedding party, both sets of parents, both sets of siblings and their significant others and the officiant. The financier may decide to invite extended family and/or any guests who are not in the wedding party but have traveled a great distance to attend the wedding as a warm welcome.

Why consider wedding rehearsal dinner videography coverage?

As I said before, the rehearsal dinner is the real kickoff to the wedding weekend. It’s a time to unwind from planning stress and reconnect with those who are closest to you. If you get video of your rehearsal dinner, you’ll be able to replay all of the hugs and kisses and see more of your inner circle’s smiles.

You’ll also be able to play back the speeches. It’s not unusual for several of the parents or guests to give toasts during the dinner, because unlike the wedding, there isn’t a timeline to stick to. Most of the guests know each other more intimately than the other guests will at the wedding. This is the time to hear more personal stories of love, support and connection without as many constraints. For that reason, these may be some of your best speeches!

Filming the rehearsal dinner is one the most-requested ways for our clients to personalize their wedding video packages. Rehearsal dinner coverage is available to add on to any wedding video package and is included as one choice of three “either/or options” in the Complete Collection. 

If you add on this option, some of the coverage will be included in your Trailer Film, as you can see in the wedding videos within this post. You’ll also get the rehearsal dinner speeches from start to finish with your Spotlight Edit.

For more details and pricing for filming your rehearsal dinner, click here. We can’t wait to hear about your big plans!