Before we give you our six amazing tips to make your rehearsal dinner at your home or apartment a success, we want you to first understand the six comments you’ll hear from friends and relatives when you tell them where the rehearsal dinner will actually be:
- Are you serious?
- Say what?
- How is that going to work?
- Who is cleaning the place first?
- Do you have enough space?
- Why are you pinching pennies?
Ok, so when you get past the shock and awe stage, here are six things you can do to make your apartment wedding rehearsal party a night to remember–in a good way!
Have It Catered
Catering is a highly competitive industry, and you have many vendor choices. In addition to old-school full-service caterers, most restaurants have some kind of catering option. You could also just opt for restaurant delivery since almost all eateries have found a way to provide that service. Any alternative to prepping, cooking and serving the food yourself is preferable.
Get Some Help
Even just one person that will help you organize, set up and eventually clean up will be a godsend. And if you have to pay someone $25 per hour to assist you, it will be money well-spent. If you have a big home or apartment, let’s say you live in a 3-bedroom place in Milwaukee, and are thinking of a 50+ person event, you may want to consider employing more than one waitstaff-type person.
Have Pro Cleaners Visit Before and After
There will be a lot of stress involved in coordinating assorted vendors, so don’t think that you can merely block off some supposedly uninterrupted time for a major apartment cleaning unless you’re going to set your alarm for 3:00 a.m. You will be spending some serious cash to do this event anyway, so add a couple hundred bucks and get a good cleaning service to clean your place before the party. Then, the last thing you are going to want to do is clean up and take out the trash after a 50+ person event, so again, get someone else to do that gig.
Consider a Rental Company
You probably don’t have enough flatware and/or china to feed the number of guests you need to invite. Either you can go cheap—and maybe ugly—with plastic, you can borrow from mommy, or you can do what the smart and seasoned entertainers do: rent what you need from a catering-type rental company. A fork may only cost you 25 or 50 cents, and you will have to return it clean, but at least you won’t have to piece together place servings from multiple sources.
Watch That Guest List
Yes, we know that you are supposed to invite all out-of-town guests to the rehearsal dinner, but you don’t have to. Most people will understand if you have to limit it to close family because of space considerations.
Parking
One final thing to consider is parking. If you don’t have ample parking near your place, you may need to hire a valet service, or at least advise guests to take an Uber.
Rehearsal dinners aren’t traditionally held at apartments or even homes, but with some good advance thinking and planning, you can have a great event.
