The first post of the wedding blog series is here. I’m going to take you through our entire wedding weekend – the best weekend of our entire lives. Instead of a fancy rehearsal dinner, we opted for a more casual welcome party that included all guests, not just the bridal party. There were a few reasons we chose to go this route.

Why We Had a Welcome Party Rehearsal Dinner

The first reason was that 85%+ of our guests were traveling in from out of town and we wanted to provide a space for everyone to relax after a long day. The second reason being, it just felt right with the theme of our wedding. For a farm wedding, an outdoor barbecue felt more comfortable to us than a fancy dinner at a restaurant, especially with COVID restrictions. The third reason was that after all of the stress that has come from the pandemic for everyone (job, family, security, health) and how stressful it made wedding planning, we just wanted to create an atmosphere for our friends and family to come and relax and keep it simple.

Shop the Post

I am so glad that we did this. Having the party on Friday allowed Eddie and I to spend time with our guests and relieved that pressure for Saturday night at our wedding. Plus, who doesn’t want to party all weekend, instead of just one night?! We are so happy with our decision and highly recommend it, especially if you have a smaller guest count and it’s possible for you.

The Details

When we sent out invitations, we included a card with information about the Welcome Party that had a spot for guests to RSVP so we could get a headcount. Almost all of our guests attended the party on Friday. Another reason why our Friday night gathering was so important is because our ceremony on Saturday had restrictions in regards to COVID-19 that we hadn’t known about when we sent out invites so we were able to announce those on Friday. We got creative and made a COVID-19 safety video, similar to the TSA safety video you see on airplanes. Since we did long distance for four years, it seemed fitting. This is the outdoor projector screen we used to play it during dinner.

I haven’t talked about this much, but our final guest count was less than 50% of what we had originally expected for obvious reasons. We came to peace with it and decided to move forward with our wedding but knowing that some of our closest loved ones couldn’t be there with us was really sad. My two brothers surprised us with a video they put together with messages from those who couldn’t be there with us, from Canada, to California, to Italy. Eddie and I were both in tears watching it. It is so incredibly special. You can watch that here.

The Decor

The setting was a tent in the back yard and all of the decor was DIY. We tried to be resourceful and keep it simple. My mom made these centerpieces and added a few drops of Eucalyptus Essential Oil. They smelled good and acted as a bug deterrent. The fish bowls had floating candles, lemons, limes and Rosemary. We cut these wood slabs from a tree trunk we found in the woods but if you don’t have access to that, you can get something similar like these ones from Amazon. To complement it, we added mason jars with hydrangeas.

We hung bistro lights inside the tent and kept everything else super causal. There was a mix of high and low tops and honestly, the high tops were a hit.

The Food

To keep it casual, we went with barbecue and we ordered from Smoky Martins in Meadville, PA – it was so good! They catered and we had servers to make sure everything was handled safely.

Afterwards we had individually wrapped cookies from Pink Sprinkles Bakery and they were absolutely stunning.

The Best Night Ever

Everything about the rehearsal night was perfect. It was intimate, relaxing, fun and I’d do it all over again if I could. Even though it was small, we felt the love and support from those who were far away.

Special thank you to Carmen Franco for all of these lovely photos!

Shop the Post

What did you do for your rehearsal dinner? Leave me a comment!