With all of your wedding planning stress, you want the night before your big day to be something relaxed and fun. Today we’re sharing 10 ideas for a picnic themed rehearsal dinner that will be the perfect last night before you say ‘I do.’
Choose Your Picnic Location
The perfect picnic themed rehearsal dinner needs the perfect location, and there are many wonderful places to host your picnic.
A park with a pavilion is a great place for your rehearsal dinner picnic because it will usually have easy access and close parking for unloading all of your picnic materials. With a covered area and picnic tables, you can plan on the pavilion no matter the weather. And if there are kids coming to the rehearsal dinner, the park is the perfect place to keep them entertained.
Another great location would be to picnic in a backyard. Because rehearsal dinners need to accommodate a smaller group, you could host in a parent or family member’s backyard comfortably and have a little BBQ complete with yard games and a bonfire. What a fun way to spend the night before your big day!
Food Ideas for Your Picnic Themed Rehearsal Dinner
What is almost more important than the location? The food! Food for your picnic themed rehearsal dinner can be simple yet fun. The easiest idea – hire a caterer or food truck to come serve your guests their dinner. That makes for almost no prep on your part and can take away some extra stress before the big day.
If you choose to handle the food yourself, choose dishes and sides that are easy to make and easy to eat. Fruit and vegetable skewers are cute to display and fun to eat, a variety of pasta and potato salads are always popular and mini sandwiches or grilled burgers are a simple way to do the main entree.
Whatever food you choose, just make sure you’re not adding more stress to your big day – keep it simple for the rehearsal dinner!
Have a Little Fun at Your Picnic Themed Rehearsal Dinner
Because this might be one of the first times you’ll be gathering family and friends from both sides together, take some time to get to know each other. A clever menu card with 5 things you should know about each couple is a great way to break the ice. It will get people from both sides of the family talking and mingling.
You can have a little fun with the table set ups at your rehearsal dinner too. Classic gingham table coverings are the perfect place to start. For centerpieces, choose bouquets of wildflowers – the perfect picnic flower – and put them in mason jars or bottles down the center of the tables. They’re the sweetest set up for your rehearsal dinner and are quick and easy to put together.
Make sure the last night before your big day allows for some good times, good laughs and lots of relaxation with a picnic themed rehearsal dinner.
Sources: 1. My Wedding Favors 2. Ashely Garmon Photography 3.peppermintlovephotography.com 4. Michaela Rae :via Apartment Therapy 5. Our Labor of Love 6. My Wedding Favors 7. KAREN HILL via Catch My Party 8.via Snippet and Ink 9.Michael Howard