The Rehearsal

I'll start off the bat by saying, PLEASE HAVE A REHEARSAL! PLEASE! I know you think thing will run themselves but really you need a rehearsal. Of course I am preaching to the choir because all of you are smart, organized people but if some clueless person happens by, HAVE A REHEARSAL!

Even if everyone involved knows the program backwards and forwards, a rehearsal is helpful because:

1. You never know how the timing will go until you actually run through things. It's hard to account for things like how long it will take for someone to stand up to give their speech or clear their throat.

2. Not everyone is a public speaker. Giving someone a test run will boost their confidence.

3. You never know with acoustics. If you are un-mic'ed, you will need to see how far your voice will carry. If you are miced, you will have to futz with the sound system to make sure there isn't feedback.

4. What you envision in your head may not work out in the space. Sometimes the space in the front is configured weirdly. Sometimes you need to move people in the wedding party around. Sometimes the table with the unity candle is too big. Either way, you need to make sure everything fits.

How do you run a rehearsal? I always start with the placement. Place the wedding party first. Where are people standing? For people who are doing readings, where will they sit so that they will have easy access to the front of the room. Where's the objects necessary for the ceremony? How will you get them to where they need to go? Then next step after the placement is the processional. Once everyone is placed, practice how they will get there. Line everyone up and have them walk to their respective places. Then practice the recessional. It's good to do the processional and recessional practice twice so everyone is comfortable walking on and off. The last part of the rehearsal is the actual running through the program. This can be done quickly with the officiant just going over the order of the program and having the people responsible for each section identify themselves. If people are nervous, you should have them read. Even if they are not reading their actual speech have them do the pledge of allegiance to get them comfortable speaking.

The true goal of the rehearsal is to make sure everyone is comfortable with what will happen. One the day of the wedding things will change and not go according to plan. And often those are the things you remember fondly. Hopefully the rehearsal will allow you to be open to all of the fun spontaneous things and not obsess about the things that are supposed to happen.