Has anyone totally skipped the rehearsal dinner and just hosted a welcome party instead?
A lot of our guests, including my fiancee's family members, are traveling across the country for our wedding in September, so we plan on having a "Welcome Reception" at our house the afternoon before the wedding for anyone who wants to come hang out. We're also having a super casual post-wedding "brunch" sort of thing open to everyone. Originally we were planning on doing beer, wine and light refreshments so that we could do the rehearsal and dinner after, but at this point I think I'd rather skip the fancy dinner and just put our money toward something else. My fiancee has kind of a complicated family history - he's adopted, knows his biological parents, but everyone is divorced, so literally 4 separate families at this point, not all of whom he's close with - and my head is spinning trying to figure out which family members of his I should include in the rehearsal. We're also planning on footing the bill, so I think I'd rather repurpose that budget.
I hadn't really considered totally scrapping the rehearsal dinner until now, but we are breaking a few traditions already, so who says we need to keep this one? We would still do the welcome reception and maybe spend a little more on food. Thoughts?
