Rehearsal Dinner cost ?

There is no rule for how much you should pay for a rehearsal dinner. It is a matter of personal preference. You can have a casual RD with just pizza and beer or a more formal dinner - it's up to you and your budget. We chose to have our RD at a casual BBQ place to contrast with the formality of our wedding.

It depends on your budget. And then that would depend on how many people you even have. Some rehearsal dinners are small and some are big. Also depends on how casual or formal you'd like

However much you can afford.

I don’t think that there is a rule for that but I would try to stay under 500 if you’re paying for yourself

The four factors are number of guests, venue, type of food, and of course alcohol.

Guests - (depending on who you ask) the following people are usually invited: parents, siblings, bridal party, grandparents, God parents, out of town guests (unless everyone is from OOT), & significant others of the people previously listed

Venue - Restaurant? Function Hall? Reception venue? Someone's house?

Food - of course pizza, BBQ, and Chinese food are easiest on the budget. Depending on the venue, you may be locked into serving food from their kitchen or caterer.

Alcohol - do you have heavy drinkers? Would a cash bar be well received?


If most of your guests are staying at a hotel, you could opt for a welcome reception instead. You could serve appetizers and pay for everyone's first drink or two. Might end up being more cost efficient.

I think it should be under $1000 but my MIL wants to spend a lot more. They are only giving us a fixed amount for rehearsal and wedding, and we need the money for other things!

View Quoted Comment If she’s paying, she gets to determine where he money goes. Even if she decides the whole amount given is for rehearsal, that’s allowed.

It all depends on what you want to do. We used our church hall for our rehearsal and ordered a couple of pizzas.

It really depends on your, or anyone else’s, budget. Like your reception- venue, food and guest list play a big part in that.

Our rehearsal dinner will be about $2k for 30 people at a restaurant with a plated dinner and appetizers. This was a gift from my FFIL as he knew we were handling most of the wedding ourselves.

We are budgeting $600 for about 30. It will be drop off catering Chipotle style, salads tacos etc.

Whatever you can afford. We are inviting 65 people and it's costing $3,000.