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A creative wedding rehearsal dinner that sets the mood

Don't steel the thunder from your wedding day at your wedding rehearsal dinner, but have fun!

You have your guests all excited about the beach wedding ceremony. Now you want to carry your beach wedding theme through the weekend, but you do not want to repeat anything. Your wedding party and out-of-town guests are generally asked to attend the wedding rehearsal dinner.

Generally, the parents of the groom take care of this meal. You have to make certain you handle this with kid gloves. Try to be diplomatic and let your future in-laws know that you do not want to dilute the impact of your beautiful beach wedding the next day.

That may actually be good, because the simpler you keep it, the less costly it will be.

Here are some tips:

Less guests - Typically, the wedding rehearsal dinner is smaller. The same amount of guests will not be attending the rehearsal dinner that are also attending the wedding. But, that being said I will tell you that I have had destination weddings or weddings with a large amount of out-of-town guests that have had wedding rehearsal dinners that have approached 150 guest count. But let's talk reasonable. 20-50 people.

Less formal - Even if you are having a beach wedding and reception, chances are, the perception of your wedding day celebration will always be more formal.

Create the mood - If your wedding celebration is all about sailing or boating, start the feel of the theme here. Maybe this is where you will have your beach party on the beach, especially if you are planning a reception the next day either inside or on a patio area near the beach.

If you have a small group for either your wedding or wedding rehearsal, rent a boat. What fun! You can go out for 2-3 hours and have music, drinks and fun food for the event. Many areas have these types of boats for rent. They can be sailboats, yachts or houseboats. There are even dinner cruises. Any of these options are fun for your wedding rehearsal dinner choices. There is even a floating wedding chapel in Florida!

Mix it up - I always tell my brides, whatever you are doing on the wedding day, do the opposite for your rehearsal dinner. No one wants a repeat performance. For example, if you are having a awesome buffet dinner for the wedding day reception, don't have a buffet for your rehearsal dinner. Maybe opt for a sit down dinner. Or perhaps just heavy hor d'oeuvres for the rehearsal dinner. You have your heart set on buffet type events for both evenings,so do a casual cookout for the rehearsal dinner and maybe a fun themed station event for your wedding reception.

Be cautious about alcohol served the night before the wedding. You do not want your attendants suffering from hangovers! Nor do you or your groom want to feel anything less than fantastic!

Get the drift? You really want to keep your theme going for the weekend, but the climax is definitely your wedding day. So my advice is to start the menu planning with the wedding reception and move backward. You can then create any other event menus and themes that are involved with the wedding celebration from there, such as bridal luncheon, after wedding day brunch etc. wedding rehearsal dinner back to wedding rehearsal

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