jrbailey's Blue wedding

So our location is a bit on the high side of our budget. We have to use the hotel as our caterer and that means our dinner is going to be quite a bit nicer than we imagined, which is great but now I have to find another place to save money. Bring in the rehearsal dinner.

Our plan right now is having 8 groomsmen, 7 bridespersons (have to be politically correct!), and 1 flowergirl. So thats a large bridal party to feed. In addition, almost every one of our guests is coming from out of town, and we want to hang out with all of our friends and family. It was so hard to cut it down to the bridal party that we have now! So our idea is to have a rehearsal earlier in the day on Friday, and then invite everyone to hang out with us on the beach. We would rent surfboards, volleyballs, bocce, and whatever else we can come up with. Then we would cater the whole thing with a bbq and it would just be a fun time! It would be really casual though, and I am still trying to figure out logistics if it was raining. We have a friend that is doing their rehearsal dinner for a few thousand and i can't imagine spending that much. We could do this for less than a thousand easily, and that fits much better into my budget!

does anyone think this is a good idea?