Rehearsal Dinner Deets

People have described to me the moment that it finally hits them, the OMG feeling that tells them that Yep, this is really happening...When did I have that feeling? My fiance and I were sitting at our spots at the altar of our church during our ceremony rehearsal and we looked at the faces of our wedding party sitting in the pews. We both turned and looked at each other.

Yikes! We're getting married!!! And it feels sooo good!

We scheduled our rehearsal dinner the Thursday evening before our wedding, giving us all of Friday for any last minute prepping -- which we definitely needed. We planned a lowkey, casual backyard get-together after the rehearsal.

The rehearsal dinner invites I made using a free template from Download & Print, free 4X6 prints from Snapfish, leftover envelopes from our Save the Dates and leftover cardstock from our invitations. Cost for 22 invites plus postage: $10. 

Our church coordinator did a thorough job going through each step of the ceremony, which was a Catholic ceremony without communion.

It's starting to sink in...

Feeling the excitement!

But the rehearsal went much longer than expected. We ended at 7:30 p.m. and our rehearsal dinner was scheduled at 7:30 p.m. We still needed to drive to our family's house to get the backyard ready for the dinner! We invited other guests who didn't need to be at the ceremony rehearsal so we had to get there as soon as possible.

But of course there was bumper to bumper traffic moving at a glacial speed on the 210 freeway. Oh, LA traffic, must you rear your ugly head now???

Despite being nearly an hour late, our rehearsal dinner was still a fun, casual affair at our house.

We used our own tiki torches and my father-in-law borrowed tables and chairs from his work.

For centerpieces and added lighting, my mother-in-law gathered old candles from around her house. It added a nice ambiance to the evening.

The food was a mixture of home-cooked Filipino food, catered Chinese food and grilled short ribs.

Saying thanks to our wedding party. Yep, that's me wearing a silk Chinese top in traditional red and gold, in honor of my fiance's cultural heritage. My guy's wearing a traditional Filipino barong, in honor of my Filipino family.

It was a lovely evening with both of our families coming together and getting to know each other.  And yes, the rehearsal dinner was part of our wedding budget. Including the food, drinks, utensils and all decorations for a dinner to feed 30 people, we spent $230.

Next up: Getting ready for the big day!

Free Invitation Downloads!

Found this on Etsy It Up! and I just had to share: Head over to Download & Print and you have yourself a great selection of invitation templates to choose from!

All you need is Microsoft Word, or you can pdf the doc to have it professionally printed! I scored 100 free postcard prints in a blog giveaway and I'd loved to use them for rehearsal dinner invites. Having access to free design templates is a great timesaver for us, as we're pretty limited in graphic design skills and we don't really have the money to hire anyone for the design.

So if you haven't already done so, browse all the cute templates! You might find one perfect for your Bridal Shower, Wedding or Rehearsal Dinner!

Our cultural wedding traditions

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When the future hubs and I first met, we were undergrads involved in an Asian and Pacific Islander student organization called APASA. We were very active in the club (actually he was the president and I was the VP) and we got our first training in teamwork and organization by coordinating cultural and diversity awareness events together (wasn't always a smooth process, but it was something we feel really proud to have worked on together). We discovered a lot about our cultural backgrounds and heritage through our involvement with APASA, and honestly, we wouldn't be a couple today if it weren't for our experiences with the club.

So we naturally wanted to incorporate our cultural backgrounds into our wedding as an ode to our days in APASA, and respect for our families' heritage and culture. We see it as a symbol of us embracing of each other's cultures and our commitment to pass on our multicultural heritage to our children.

But attempting to incorporate three different cultures-- Filipino, Chinese and Samoan -- into one day is difficult. The cultures share a lot of similarities, but they are distinct and unique. How do we respectfully honor each side without looking like a hodge podge mixture without cohesion or unity?

So we've decided to break up the different traditions over three segments of the wedding celebration -- our rehearsal dinner, the ceremony and the reception. During the rehearsal dinner we are serving Chinese dishes and possibly incorporating a traditional Chinese tea ceremony, a tradition where both the bride and groom honor their elders with an offering of tea.

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During our Catholic ceremony, we're incorporating Filipino wedding traditions. The ceremony is full of symbolic meaning and rituals, including a veil covering both the bride and groom to signify being "clothed as one," a cord loosely wrapped around the bride and groom to signify unity and the arras, or offering of 13 coins to represent financial security.

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And last, but not least, our reception will include a fun and energetic performance of Samoan dance and song by a Samoan dance troupe (We're really honored to have a friend and his family perform for us!). This segment will include a traditional dance that I'm really excited about...it's going to be a surprise ;)

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I love hearing about ways other brides and grooms are incorporating their cultural heritage into their wedding! What traditions are you honoring?

Mmmm...more origami

Saw this over at Wedding Bee (who got it from Eat Drink Chic) and, well, I had to join the bandwagon.

But check out these origami invitations! Aren't they adorable?

From Eat Drink Chic

From Eat Drink Chic

From Eat Drink Chic

Eat Drink Chic offers a downloadable template and you can view a video tutorial here. I had been thinking of inexpensive invites to send for our rehearsal dinner, and I orginally thought an evite would suffice...we are just having a casual backyard BBQ/potluck. But, call me old fashion, I always like the real things. Hmmm, cute, unique and very cheap. I think it's a win! We're already folding 1000 paper cranes...what's 20 more rehearsal dinner invites? (I can hear my fiance groaning :)

Rehearsal Dinner Downlow

As most of you know by now, our budget includes our rehearsal dinner for about 50 or so people. I couldn't imagine throwing another mini-wedding reception at a fancy restaurant with our budget, so we decided on a no-frills, home-cookin' casual affair in my FSIL's backyard.

But we're not scaling back on formality with our rehearsal dinner just because of our limited budget. We actually prefer it this way. We're just as excited about our laidback backyard BBQ/potluck as we are with our semi-formal wedding reception. We wanted our rehearsal dinner to be an opportunity where both families would feel comfortable interacting and getting to know each other. No seating arrangements, buffet style with some tables and chairs in the backyard. The menu? We're not sure yet, but we envision a mix of catered Chinese food with some homemade Filipino and Samoan food. We're probably going to fire up the grill with some Korean BBQ (my fiance's favorite). Maybe some candles and paper lanterns for a little decorative fun. Just a good ol' family get together with great food! We've had family parties for about 50-70 people and we've always had tons of food leftover (all on a budget of about $400-$600!)  That's usually how we roll anyway when we celebrate, so having a casual, initimate get-together before the big shebang will be well worth it!

What are you planning for your rehearsal dinner?