Our Midcoast Maine wedding festivities kicked off on Friday, August 13th, with the guys in the wedding party, my brothers, and our dads spending most of the day golfing at the Samoset Resort; a resort just up the street from our wedding venue and in nearby Rockport, Maine. Since I didn’t get to the area until Thursday afternoon, I opted to not plan anything for the women in the bridal party and instead wanted a day to “chill.”
Our Rehearsal Dinner
I put quotations on “chill” because it was the farthest from a chill, relaxing day if I’m being honest lol. 😂 My mom and I spent late morning dropping off welcome bags at local hotels and then I picked up some last minute items from the grocery store. Basically any last minute items we’d want with us in the room while getting ready on our wedding day (iced coffee, alcohol, snacks, etc.).
At 4:15pm, we had our rehearsal at our wedding venue, The Edge. I recommend telling everyone that it starts about 15 minutes before you actually need to start. That way, if anyone is running late, you should still start “on time.” For my rehearsal, it was me running late! Ooooops!
There’s a lot of talk on social media, particularly TikTok, about whether a rehearsal is necessary or not. Hear me out, it’s 1000000% necessary. Essentially the rehearsal forces you to practice your ceremony before the day of your wedding. Also, if you hadn’t previously thought about where your wedding party would line up to walk into your ceremony and how they would exit, this forces you to think about all of those details and to practice. I highly suggest not skipping it. It ensures a smoother ceremony on your wedding day. It made me feel much more at ease going into my wedding day. Also, if you’re worried about running your rehearsal, don’t be! Our wedding coordinator and officiant ran the show and it was extremely efficient!
Our rehearsal dinner started at 5:30pm and was at The View at 16 Bay View Hotel in downtown Camden, Maine. They have a covered rooftop bar and it was absolute perfection. It was a very hot day, so we were glad that we planned something along the water where it’s cooler. Due to their capacity restrictions for the rooftop bar, we kept our rehearsal dinner small at 35 people with only immediate family, grandparents, and our bridal party and their plus ones being invited. We were a little bummed to not be able to include aunts, uncles, and cousins, however, it ended up working out fine!
Our Rehearsal Dinner Menu
Passed Appetizers
We served passed appetizers from 5:30-6:30pm while guests mingled and grabbed cocktails. This acted as our cocktail hour so that guests could mingle and get to know each other.
Sweet Corn & Basil Arancini
Mini Lobster Popovers
Tasting Menu – Dinner
At our rehearsal dinner tasting, the chef, Andrea, suggested a tasting menu and we absolutely fell in love with this idea. Not only did we loved the idea of giving our guests a taste of all of the menu options, this also kept it easier on us so that we didn’t have to collect meal selections and make meal cards for each guest.
House Salad with baby greens, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and Bay View vinaigrette
Ricotta Gnocchi with basil puree, baby peas and carrots, and sauteed pea shoots
Seared Scallop with fennel salad, grapefruit, and crispy shallots
Braised Short Rib with red wine jus and polenta
Dessert
We wanted to keep dessert casual and get our guests mingling again, so dessert was buffet style.
Chocolate Creme Brulee
Olive Oil Chiffon Cake with Meyer lemon glaze
Maine Blueberry Crisp with lemon curd cream and candied ginger
Rehearsal Dinner Outfit
My Dress (runs true to size – available in more sizes here + here) | Similar Shoes | My Earrings
Rehearsal Dinner Tips
✨ If you’re the bride or the groom, keep the drinks to a minimum. I actually only had one drink that night before I switched to water and mocktails. If you’re someone who needs something in their hand (me too!), a club soda with a lime or a fun mocktail will make you feel less awkward. You spend SO long planning and prepping for your wedding – you don’t want to wake up feeling less than your best self on your wedding day. Also, Geoff and I both agreed that we didn’t even need the alcohol. We had so much adrenaline pumping that we felt tipsy ha!
✨ We gave out gifts to our bridesmaids and groomsmen at our rehearsal dinner because we felt like it added to the excitement in kicking off the weekend. And at least for the ladies, if you’ll be gifting them something to get ready in for the day-of, this makes it easy and ensures everyone can show up in that getting ready outfit! I advised my bridesmaids to bring their whole bridesmaid bag that I gifted them, to the wedding on the day-of. Here are the bags I purchased to put all of the bridesmaid goodies in! I’ll share what I put inside them in another post.
✨ I recommend clearing your schedule for the day (and the day before)! We had so many little things popping up here and there and I was glad that I didn’t have solid plans that I had to meet in combination with the craziness of the day. I had really wanted to hire a hair stylist and makeup artist for my rehearsal dinner day and couldn’t end up finding anyone. To be honest, it ended up being a blessing because I didn’t even get to my hotel to check in until around 3pm (with the rehearsal starting at 4:15!). Having to meet appointments would have just been an added stress.
✨ If possible and if your budget allows, a Welcome Party open to all wedding guests following your rehearsal dinner is a fun option for your guests. We really wanted a Welcome Party as a fun “Welcome to Maine” kickoff for our wedding guests (and a way to spend more time with them), but actually couldn’t get a single bar or restaurant in the area to agree to hosting that many people. Just another downside to COVID…. After emailing 10-15 options, I ended up giving up because I had other wedding details to iron out that felt more important. But, if you can, I think it’s a nice gesture for those arriving from out of town and it gets everyone excited for the weekend! Although we didn’t have set in stone plans, we ended up walking to a local bar after our rehearsal dinner and met up with friends that way!
✨If photos are important to you, I suggest hiring your wedding photographer for an extra night or assigning someone from the bridal party to capture photos all night. As you can see from this post, we hardly have any photos from our rehearsal dinner.
