What is your budget for rehearsal dinner?

We spent $500 on 46 people for our rehearsal dinner, not including decorations. We had Publix catering - chicken, sides/platters, s’mores and non-alcoholic drinks.

It's definitely doable. We're only having 16 people, but pizza, dessert, and drinks would cost us less than $100. We're considering other options, but will probably end up going that route.

I think so! You can get BBQ and Mexican catered for $10 per person, so as long as you can find a free venue (house, park, etc.) you can do it and have $200 leftover for drinks!

I think that's doable. I've been to a rehearsal dinner where the couple got food from Costco--sandwiches, salads, sides, desserts, and more.

Absolutely! We found a Italian restaurant nearby that offers a private room and catered meal for our rehearsal dinner. We also have about 30 people and the cost came to about $520 total not including tip

Totally possible! That is about what I am planning to spend for 36!

We spent about $700 I think? and I believe we had 23 people.


I know the restaurant owner well (he’s a family friend) so we negotiated the price to a flat rate of $25 per person, and then of course we tipped 20%.

^oh I should mention though that $700 didn’t cover alcohol (the restaurant was BYOB) so we spent about $200 on wine and beer which we brought in ourselves. So I guess we in total spent $900, but A LOT of the alcohol was leftover. Our budget was $1k so that’s actually the one area of our wedding I think we came in under budget 😂

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Oh wow, that's a lot of money for us. Our budget was only $500 and that's what I told my parents. Thank you for sharing!

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Oh nice! Everyone's been talking about hosting it at home. I forgot to mention that it's for at a restaurant. Thank you!

View Quoted Comment I mean it’s definitely possible to do it for less but we really wanted to have it at this restaurant in particular so 🤷🏻‍♀️

We spent $400 and we had ... About 22 people.

It depends on the place you’re having it. Look over the menu or see if you can have a set menu. Take gratuity into consideration. We plan on spending around 3500 for 35 people. Your answers will vary.

We chose a local "family style" restaurant that has a separate gazebo party room for our rehearsal dinner. The cost is $16.99 a person not including alcohol or tips. Our gazebo room is for 40 people, so in a smaller event room we could have easily kept the cost down. $500 is super doable from what I've found.


And, we decided to have the dinner at the restaurant, but if we wanted to save more money, our hotel block is letting us reserve their ballroom once we get 10 rooms booked. If you need/want to cut costs, look into if the venue or hotel will give you free space for the dinner.

We are hoping to spend no more than $1200 (including alcohol, tax, and gratuity) for 40 people at a restaurant. We may end up cutting the list down smaller depending on what our budget looks like closer to time, but I think $500 for 30 people is definitely do-able!

100% yes! call around and ask for prices everywhere. if it doesnt fit, dont do it. you guys could also spend money to buy burgers, hotdogs, bbq, mac n cheese, etc. and ask the parents to cook some. thats what my brother and sister in law did ($250 for 50 people with tons left over) and thats what my hubby and i are doing as the wedding is already expensive enough and im a VERY picky eater. you could also try pizza, subs, etc. and i would personalize skip alcohol for the rehersal dinner so nobody gets out of hand the night before your big day. might create unnecessary drama. good luck!!!

You could also try a place that has a buffet. We love an Indian restaurant in our neighborhood that has a buffet for $12.50 per person for lunch, and $15.50 for dinner, which is really inexpensive and the food is so fricking fantastic!

If you call ahead to a buffet place you like and say you have 30 people coming, it shouldn't be too big a problem - they might even work out a deal with you. And if you can make your rehearsal dinner into a rehearsal lunch instead, you can potentially save even more as lots of places have cheaper lunch menus.

My future in-laws are paying for the rehearsal dinner. We have about 30 people and they were looking to spend about $15 to $17 per person. That's roughly $500. We booked a local restaurant that has a large secluded back room free of charge, so we're just paying for the food.

View Quoted Comment Great idea! I was thinking of Chinese restaurant, but didn’t want to appear to stingy. Guess I will stick to the plan if I don’t find anything else. Thank you!

View Quoted Comment Nice! I need to start looking around. Thank you for sharing!