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Hi there,
Just wondering what the average rehearsal dinner costs are across the board?
Please include what type of dinner (plated, buffet, restaurant name/type of restaurant, etc), average cost per person or total, how many people in the party.
I think ours will be about $2000 for 50 people (bridal party, kids + parents, ceremony readers, parents, etc).
The list ins't final but I think it will be about 50, we're doing a catered BBQ from a local BBQ place which is about $700 roughly.
We're renting tents, tables and chairs and buying Hawaiian themed plates and decorations (an dall that entails), plus a keg.
I think that roughly it will be about $1200, less if I bargin shop on decorations.
We wanted something really laid back and fun to break the stress of the wedding plans we've been doing and the schedule of the day to come. Relax and have a great time..:-)
Wow, that sounds like a great price. I'm working on that now, and the prices I'm hearing are all over the place. We'll have about 40 people and I've heard as low as 1700 to a high of 6000!!! (All including tax and gratuity). But I've heard of other people having as many as 100 people (come on) and it costing 10,000! I'm hoping to stay under 2500. I will want a buffet in some sort of italian/american restaurant.
Ours is in Westchester County, NY and will be for about 50 people. It costs about 4,500 with tax and gratuity. However, we are doing a lobster bake with all kinds of other seafood (which is why it's so expensive) with some cold salads, BBQ steak, chicken, Oh and it's buffet in a restaurant overlooking the water.
Wow, mine will be in Westchester too, I guess I should be thankful.. but that sounds awesome!!
Our's is upstate NY and is a BBQ as well. It will be about $30 per person not including the bar tab.
30 people -- $75 each for dinner... but with wine it came out to around $8000.
Ours is about $50 per person including tip and alcohol (so about $2000 total for 40 people).
$2400 in the SF bay area incl. tax and grat. 33 people at a nice restaurant (seated/plated)
San Francisco bay area. Renting out an initmate resturaunt that holds 76 and the price is $4300 which includes full course and appetizers as well as wine and beer.
I spent $900 for 40 people. I arranged for a prix fix menu that saved me a ton. It was in the SF Bay area.
I'm from Detroit, Michigan. My parents live in a smaller town where we are being married named Richmond. We've decided to have our rehersal dinner at the local dive bar... with the best fish fry ever. We think it will be so much fun and for 30 people probably cost about 400 dollars.
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We decided not to have a rehearsal dinner. We are inviting all of our guests to join us the night before for dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant. We could not justify the expense of paying for another dinner for over half of our wedding guests. Our guest list is small (50) and the guest list for the rehearsal would be about 30 people. Dinner will be reasonably priced with a menu full of options. To thank my bridesmaids, I will take them to a lunch. Haven't figured out the groomsmen. That is one of His duties.
$28.00 per person for plated dinner (chicken or veggie). This includes dessert (creme brulee), water, and tea. Soda and wine is extra. We don't have to rent anything. We are having it in the smaller banquet room adjacent to where our reception will be (same venue). We are expecting about 40 people. My fh's parents are paying for it. I also bought a cake for this event because it will be on my grandma's 90th birthday -- I spent $120 on cake.
My dad runs a steakhouse in SD so he's flying steaks (and salmon) to NJ and we're going to have a big backyard bbq the night before. I imagine there will be about 60 people there (just our wedding party is 7 per side) and it will be steak or fish, lots of delicious salads and grilled veggies and lots of beer and wine. I'm not sure the price my dad's paying for the proteins, but I imagine it'll end up being like $500 total.
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We're going to an amazing restaurant in Chinatown, whose decor is so 30 years ago, but we assume thats what keeps the prices down. It will be $15pp for about 35 people and we'll also be bringing some wine. The place uses mostly organic vegetables and serves both vegetarian and meat options (Hub and I are vegetarians...so are most of our friends). We're really looking forward to it :) (It's in 2 weeks!)
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We're doing a sunset cruise in Newport,RI for our rehearsal dinner. We're renting out the entire boat, which includes a sit down dinner and alcohol. For about 60 people, it'll be roughly $5000-5500.
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We are doing BBQ for 100 people (lots of out of town guests to invite) and that will be about $4000. We are also renting shuttles to take people to and from the restaurant because it's about 20 miles out of the city which will be another $2000. We're spending a lot on the RD but we have a ton of people spending the time and money to go out of town for our wedding and want them included in all the festivities!
Restaurant in Santa Barbara (we rented out 1/2 of the site in a private area) for 47 guests--approximately $5000--that included two appetizers, salad/soup, three entree choices, two dessert choices, and all the wine the guests could guzzle--after all, it IS wine country!
I think it will be about $2000 with the place we're looking at, maybe with 50 people.
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Wow....I'm in sticker shock here, lol.
We had to do our RD on a shoestring budget, so at a local restaurant we're getting a HUGE buffet (3-4 entrees, multiple sides, salad, etc) for $19.95 plus a $35 room rental fee. For 25 people we'll come in right around $535-550. It will be classy and cozy at the same time. I didn't have to worry about alcholo since no one in my family drinks, so perhaps this is where I'm saving so much money...
My mom hosted a picnic RD for my brother last summer. She spent $450ish and we had tons of home made food, salad, fruit, multiple desserts and drinks (non alcohol since it was in a national park). The cost of the rental of the picnic shelter (which was made of stone and had a fireplace, it was really pretty) was about $100, so she really only spent $350 on food for 30+ people. It was really elegant with pretty tablecloths, decorated paper plates, and fancy napkins.
RDs don't have to be lavish--its family and friends. Its a time to relax and rejuvenate before the big day.
About $900 for 30 people in a Chinese restaurant. I'm fudging a little because we BYOB'd and used wine, beer & champagne that we put into the wedding budget, so I didn't count it toward RD costs. Still, I'd say even if you added that, we'd be under $40/head, which is a good price for a nice dinner including alcohol. Also, we took home leftovers and several families consumed them for days. No lie. So can I deduct costs for meals we *didn't* have to buy later? 
i've been researching in SF and it'll probably be around $55/pp. But with alcohol, tax and gratuity, I'd say an easy $5k.
Do any of the sf brides want to share where your rehearsal dinners will be? We haven't decided yet.... I'd love to do it at Bistro Jeanty but I think it would be min $7k....
I am having my RD in the Denver/Boulder area, so it may be cheaper than other parts of the country. We are hosting ours as a "welcome party", so we plan to invite the entire guest list. Since I wanted a more formal wedding and the FI wanted a party, we compromised and the welcome party will be his big event. The welcome party will be hosted in a bar/grill within walking distance to the main hotel we have blocked off (http://www.darkhorsebar.com/).
Here is my cost breakdown:
Appetizers/Burgers(We will let veggies order off of the menu)/Fries buffet for 150 people and soft drinks @$1500
Bluegrass Band for 2 hours @ $1000
Checkered Table Cloth Rental (The site will provide for free)/Sunflower Centerpieces (a single bloom floating in a clear vase) to make the dive bar look less "divey" @ $200
Groom's Cake (Sheet cake with ski figurines) @$250
Total $2950
This does not include liquor as I do not plan to offer an open bar for our guests two nights in a row, nor do I want a hungover FI :)
Our guests are being spoiled by a welcome party, OOT bags and a charter bus to take them to/from the wedding, so I hope that they will be okay with us buying dinner and buying their own drinks as desired.
we had 25 people at our rehearsal dinner at a restaurant (danal) in manhattan. the total was $1700, which works out to $68 pp.
hope that helps!
Would love it if people could update this! These prices sound crazy and so does the headcount. Anyone else out there have less people (25 or less) and spend under $1,000?
wow those prices do seem a little high. For 15.95/pp we're having a buffet at an italian restaurant in town. For 40 people before alcohol it should come to about $650
@retroindigo: it's funny you say that because my rehearsal dinner s bigger that I thought and costing more than I thought. Reading the older posts, I started to feel better. Then I read your update and it made me laugh and feel bad again that our RD is not as small and cheap as I hoped!
for ours, we'll have about 65 people at $25PP. We're serving blackened chicken, shrimp pasta, two starches, salad, punch and rolls. it's a seated dinner with real plates and the venue is BYOB. Total price will be about $2500.
We're hoping for 35 people at most (probably closer to 30) and I'm banking on $700....hope I'm not being unrealistic!
I guess I'm spoiled because ours is costing between 5 and 6k. 60 people with an open bar and buffet...
Wow, this thread is OLD!
@retroindigo: Yes, We are shooting for under $500 for possibly 15 ppl.
I'm aiming for 25 people and so help me GOD if I spend over $600. We'll pick up food and a couple drinks, but beyond that it's up to everyone to fend for themselves.
Potluck style!! Maybe 30 people coming, we're providing all the alcoholic drinks and the venue is having us the night before. So maybe $80.
I've just started pricing this out. We are planning to do a seated dinner at a restaurant in Downtown Hartford, CT close to our venue.
I'm looking at a private room, seated dinner, salad course, two entree options, dessert, coffee, tea, soda, beer and wine for 40ppl. It's looking like it will be around 2500.00 so about $62 a person. Everything in CT is expensive!
We are hoping to have it at a little (chain) Mexican BYO, Tijuana Flats. We LOVE this place & not only do we love its spunk, but it also has a hot sauce bar(!!).
We are figuring approx. $10 a person average + cost of alcohol...We're planning on making 2 different margaritas & buying some "Mexican" beer. I've been collecting mason jars to serve the 'ritas in and might make some of those Martha "pompoms" to serve as decor... I'm spending 50 cents or less per "jar"/glass and got the tissue paper at the dollar store...
some of these are the cost my my wedding food! Lucky girls ;) Im having mine at a latin resturant near the hotel/wedding venue. We will be staying there the night before the wedding too. Its buffet style, all kinds for food for about 12 a person. I thought that was pretty good :)
My FFIL is a HUGE fisherman and shrimper and makes the best fish fries and low country boils, so we are having a low country boil at my FSIL's house after the rehearsal. She has a big house and lots of land and a pool, so there'll be plenty of room for people to spread out and eat inside or outside if they want, and the kids can swim. Low country boil is just shrimp, potatoes, corn, and sausage and we'll have drinks and dessert, but it probably won't cost us more than a few hundred dollars for about 40 people.
I think we're having around 25-30 people. I'm not sure on the total price because FMIL is buying 90% of the food and is making traditional Japanese food. The rehearsal dinner will be held at my uncle's hunting plantation (free) and the flowers for decorations are coming in around 150 - so I would say around 500.
Our rehearsal dinner is going to be on the patio of a bar/restaurant at our venue. I'm not paying for it so I don't know prices for sure but I'm hoping it's not more than $1000 for 40 people. A family friend of ours works there and is getting us a good deal for a buffet with two meat choices (chicken and pork I believe), mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, water and tea.
@pinkandsparkly: Where in the Boston area are you having this? I'm from mass. too
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