4 Crucial Tips for your Wedding Ceremony Rehearsal

Ceremony rehearsals are a major part of every wedding experience. While some couples opt to skip the ceremony rehearsal, we strongly recommend against it. Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life and for your ceremony to go off without a hitch it’s important to take the time to learn and run through what is expected of you during the ceremony portion of your wedding day. With over 500 weddings executed by our knowledgeable, trained and experienced staff we have seen what works and what doesn’t at ceremony rehearsals. Our staff has combined their expertise to present you with the four most crucial ceremony rehearsal tips to make your ceremony rehearsal run as smoothly and as close to what will actually happen at you real ceremony as possible.

Tip 1:  Let your officiant direct your rehearsal.

While we have had some debate around the office as to whether or not this is the most important of these tips, it is still vital nonetheless. Many times couples arrive to our venues and expect our venue managers and event specialists to conduct their ceremony rehearsal in place of the officiant, even though the venue manager or event specialist is not the person that will actually marry the couple. Our wonderfully talented event professionals are happy to assist your officiant as needed, but every couple has unique customs, traditions and expectations for their ceremony that should be met by the person responsible for conducting the ceremony on the day of the wedding.

If you consider your wedding like a play, the officiant is your director. This person is responsible for preparing you with the information needed to complete your ceremony and running the rehearsal of what will actually happen. If you leave the responsibility of conducting your rehearsal to your venue manager or event specialist they may do things differently than what your officiant expects or wants, causing confusion on your wedding day as to different individual responsibilities, order of ceremony and the timing involved. Trust the officiant you hire to be an integral part of this process.

Tip 2: Only invite those that are involved in the ceremony.

We understand that your grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins want to be involved in as much of your wedding as possible, but trust us when we say things will go more smoothly and quickly during the rehearsal if only the integral people involved in the ceremony are present for the rehearsal. That doesn’t mean your extended family shouldn’t be ignored entirely, invite them to your rehearsal dinner! Not only will less people help alleviate some stress from the engaged couple by not having to manage twice as many people as what is in their wedding party, it also helps the officiant, venue manager and event specialist focus on what is most important: your wedding.

Too many hands in the pot can make things more complicated and chaotic than need be!

Tip 3: Plan your ceremony before your rehearsal.

Many times we have witnessed couples arrive for their ceremony rehearsal at one of our exclusive venues only to plan their ceremony as they try to rehearse it. There is nothing worse than an unexpected surprise or change in plan on the day of your wedding, or the day before. To avoid last minute planning, meet with or call your officiant a few days in advance to go over the order of your ceremony and what you both expect during the rehearsal and the ceremony itself. It’s important to let them know which VIP guests will be escorted by the ushers such as grandparents of the couple, readings that you’d like to occur and who will do them, and any special unity ceremonies such as sand ceremonies, unity candles, or wine box ceremonies.

Some officiants have a very specific way of doing things. For example, an officiant might not conduct a unity ceremony until after they have pronounced you as married. Find out the way your officiant intends to organize your ceremony in advance so everything goes according to the plan you envision for this very important day.

Tip 4: Give your wedding party an arrival time. Not just the time the rehearsal will start.

This may seem fairly self-explanatory, but there is always the person that arrives far too early or the one person that arrives far too late and holds up the activities. Everyone also has those close friends or family members that follow the rule to be on time is to be late, to be early is to be on time (We love those who are a few minutes early and ready to get down to business!). If your ceremony rehearsal is scheduled to begin at 4:00pm, stress to your bridal party the importance of arriving between 3:45pm – 3:55pm in order to begin promptly. While early arrivals will always be welcomed and provided with an area to wait until the remainder of your wedding party arrives, encourage your wedding party to arrive as close to your designated arrival time as possible. The show cannot go on without everyone present!

We are always thrilled and honored to be chosen as the venue or caterer for one of the most important days of your life and it is just as important to us, as it is you, that your ceremony and reception are executed flawlessly. Following these simple, yet crucial tips, will truly create the best ceremony rehearsal and ceremony possible for you and your significant other. As we always encourage, trust the professionals involved in your wedding to do what they are hired to do in order to make your event a success, but also be sure you are doing your part to ensure that those expectations are met.