Rehearsal Dinner Dilemma

On a different note all together, let’s talk about the rehearsal dinner and my woes with this time-honored tradition. It’s not that I don’t want to do a rehearsal dinner…it just seems like the cosmos forces are working against my planning this portion of our wedding.
You see, my venue is great. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Texas Old Town – check them out here. But they have a funny policy on the rehearsal portion of your wedding. The good news is that they will include your use of the hall for a rehearsal for FREE. The bad news? It’s their policy that you cannot book your hall for the night before your wedding date to hold the rehearsal until three weeks before the wedding. Yes, you read that right. Three weeks.

I understand why TOT does this. It’s become a semi-popular trend to get married on a day other than a Saturday. Most venues charge less money, so the bride and groom on a budget can take advantage of this and get a smokin’ deal on a place by choosing a day other than Saturday. This also generates some extra $$ for the venue, so everyone wins. Except for the bride that paid extra $$ to have her wedding on Saturday and now can’t guarantee that she’ll be able to rehearse at the venue the night before…

Which means that I won’t know if I can even HAVE a rehearsal the night before until less than a month before it would be happening. And that really puts a crimp on my obsessive nature…yes, Mr. CC I freely admit that I obsess. About all things related to this wedding!

I’ve been talking with some family and friends about this dilemma that I’m facing and so far we’ve come up with a few suggestions that I’ll share with you. Because maybe you’re a bride that is facing the same situation. Or maybe you’re just smarter than me and have an idea that I haven’t thought of…

One suggestion made was not to stress about it until I know for sure one way or the other. Obviously, this person doesn’t know ME at all! So we’ll just pretend that suggestion wasn’t even made.

Second on the list - a day-of rehearsal. Since our wedding is going to be at a later time during the day (not yet determined, but before sunset) it might be possible to do an early morning rehearsal and follow it with a rehearsal brunch instead of a dinner. I have to admit that I like the oddness of this idea. It’s against the grain, and the norm, so of course I like it! But it poses some problems. For one thing, what do I do about Mr. CC and I seeing each other on our big day? Tradition says that we shouldn’t see each other at all that day…so if I’m following that tradition then how do I do a rehearsal the day of the wedding followed by a rehearsal brunch? I suppose that I COULD do a rehearsal with me, and then another rehearsal with Mr. CC and we would just eat separately from our guests.

But I don’t really like that idea. For one thing, that’s a lot of time on the bridal party. They, along with parents and the minister, would all have to do the rehearsal twice. Not a bad thing to get in extra practice, but still. Plus, doing it that morning also takes away from time that might be needed dong other things. What other things, you might ask? Hair, nails, make-up, decorating the reception hall and the ceremony site, just to name a few. Because if we can’t get into the venue for a rehearsal the day before, we won’t be able to do any of those things the day before either.

The only other suggestion that’s been made has been to hold a rehearsal dinner the night before and rehearse briefly wherever that will be done. Even though it wouldn’t be the exact SAME field, a field is really a field. And couldn’t you practice on one lawn just as easily as you could the other lawn. The only difference would be the steps of the gazebo. But that should only affect Mr. CC, the minister and myself. I’m sure that the three of us can manage to “make believe” that one thing. So rehearse on a lawn somewhere, then go and eat dinner. That might work. It would at least be a little easier to handle logistically speaking.

Do you have another scenario that I might have missed? A way to make this work just in case my venue does end up getting booked for the night before my wedding?