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Rehearsal Dinner Checklist

Rehearsal Dinner Checklist

Updated on: Dec 14, 2021

A rehearsal for the bride and groom is used to practice the wedding ceremony in the next few days. After rehearsals, there will most likely be a rehearsal dinner where the groom, bride, and guests can chat and have fun before the day of the event. Even though the rehearsal dinner is more of an informal event, there still needs to be planning so that everything goes perfectly. Our rehearsal dinner checklist template can help you organize your ideas to ensure that your rehearsal dinner can build excitement for your wedding ceremony. 

Below, we have created a guide on how to plan a Rehearsal Dinner party with the checklist template provided. In the checklist guide, there are also some ideas that can be used to customize the template provided to fit your circumstances. After finishing your custom rehearsal dinner checklist, we hope it helps you budget your time so you don’t have to stress over the planning phase! 

5 Reasons to Love Our Rehearsal Dinner Checklist

<img src="5-Reasons-to-Love-our-Rehearsal-Dinner-Planning-Checklist.jpg" alt="">
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1. Automatic Timeline

How long does it take to plan a rehearsal dinner, you ask? We believe that there is no fixed time frame that will work for everyone. Since, everyone has their own specific situations and timeframes we created a checklist that will help you countdown the days till the wedding reception. Just add the day you started planning your rehearsal dinner, along with what day you’ll be holding it, and each task included in the worksheet will get an assigned due date!  This will help you plan and make sure you have everything taken care of in time for the big day.

2. Visuals

Our template is formatted to help you easily see what tasks need to get done, and which should have higher priority.

  • Find the perfect rehearsal dinner venue?  Check the box in the row for choosing a venue, and it will turn green.  This helps you visually spot which tasks are still outstanding.
  • Did you get caught up with your busy schedule?  If you start to approach a due date, it will turn yellow.  If it passes without completion, it will turn red.  This will help you prioritize tasks.

3. Shareable!

Are you planning your rehearsal dinner with friends or family members?  We got you covered because our checklist template can be shared with whomever you wish via Google Drive.  Everyone will be on the same page, in real time! Multiple people can edit the checklist at the same time which marks collaborations much less stressful. 

4. Helpful Links

The template doesn’t just help you plan your time, it connects you with great resources in a single click.

  • Want to survey your friends or family to find the best time to hold the rehearsal dinner?  Links to useful websites and apps are included.
  • Want to find the best florist?  Easily find every service - from venues and caterers to DJs and decorators - you need in one place.
  • Budgeting is a huge part of party planning.  It doesn’t need to be difficult, though!  Just use our budget worksheet, created just for your rehearsal dinner!  A link to this sheet will be included in the checklist.
  • Need to order supplies?  We’ve got you covered.  Just click!
  • Want to get the creative juices flowing with some fun party tips and ideas?  We’ll link right to the articles you need.

5. Customizable Rehearsal Dinner Checklist

This is no generic planning guideline that will result in an amazing rehearsal dinner. So instead we provided some suggestions for tasks that will help you create your customized rehearsal dinner checklist.

Choose a Date for Rehearsal

It is common for the wedding rehearsal to be a few days or a day before the wedding ceremony. You have to work things out with your significant other to see when you should host the rehearsal. It's best to have it a few days before because it will allow you to make any necessary corrections to your wedding ceremony. To not forget preparations for the rehearsal dinner, you should input them as tasks in our checklist. 

Guest List

After deciding on the date, you should inform your guests a few months in advance so they can notify you if they can attend the rehearsal. For the rehearsal, you should invite guests who will play a major part at the wedding to come. However, for the rehearsal dinner, you can ask as many of the guests that you want. 

Just know that the more people you invite to the rehearsal dinner, the more complicated it becomes to plan. Suppose you decided on inviting all of your guests to the rehearsal dinner. In that case, you might want to consider having it a few days before rather than the day before the wedding ceremony. After creating the guest list, you should consider tasks that may need to be tracked.  

Rehearsal Dinner Venue

After you have chosen a date for the rehearsal, you’ll need to think of where to hold the rehearsal dinner. If there is enough space, it could be held at a house, a restaurant, or an open venue like a park. The cheapest and most effective option is to host the rehearsal dinner at a restaurant or house, where you can make either a simple reservation or no reservation at all. 

The most expensive option would be choosing a venue that deals with a load of other tasks such as renting out the venues in advance by a few months. A feature of our checklist that can help you with finding a venue/place is being able to place links to other websites. After you have selected a venue, you can input the link in the task section so it would be easier later on for you to locate the website to book the venue or restaurant.

Themes for a Rehearsal Dinner

If you chose a restaurant, you could choose a theme you want your guest to experience such as fine or casual dining. Also for restaurants, there isn't much variety for themes, so if you want to create your own theme, renting a venue or holding the rehearsal at a house would be a better option. When hosting a rehearsal dinner at someone's home or at a venue, you can choose any theme you would like such as a winter ball, rustic, or modern. 

How to Use Our Rehearsal Dinner Checklist

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Simply click the download button below to get started. We have created a step-by-step guide to take you through using our checklists: how to share your checklists with fellow planners, how to add/edit/delete tasks, how to sort/filter/reorder tasks and more.

Conclusion

Easy Event Planning believes that planning your rehearsal dinner should be fun and easy! Our customizable template will help make your rehearsal dinner checklist. The personalized checklist will ensure all your plans are in order before the rehearsal dinner. We hope that our guide and checklist template, helps you plan an exciting rehearsal dinner!  If you enjoy using this checklist, you’ll love our planning tools for other events, too!

Written by Bryk Li; Contributor: Jack Leduc

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