How To Run Your Wedding Rehearsal
A wedding ceremony rehearsal is an essential part of preparing for the big day, but it shouldn’t be complicated. A rehearsal gives the couple, their families, and the wedding party a chance to walk through the ceremony and ensure that everything runs smoothly on the actual wedding day. Here are some tips to help you run a successful wedding ceremony rehearsal:
plan out the details
Create a Detailed Plan: Before the rehearsal, make sure you have a detailed plan of the ceremony. This should include the order of events and the roles of each person involved in the ceremony. This plan will serve as a guide during the rehearsal, helping everyone stay on track and ensuring that all the important details are covered!
Choose a Location: Contrary to popular belief, your ceremony rehearsal does not need to take place at your wedding venue! Especially if you’re getting married in peak wedding season, it may be tricky to get your venue as a rehearsal location if other weddings are booked on the days leading up to your special day. If you’re wedding venue isn’t available - don’t worry! You can have your rehearsal basically anywhere. Think about using a nearby park, your backyard, or even the parking lot of your rehearsal dinner to do a run-through of your ceremony.
Create Your Processional Order: Decide who will be walking down the aisle, if they’ll have a walking partner, and the order in which they will be walking in. While everyone remembers to include the wedding party, don’t forget about the groom, the mother of the bride, and the grooms parents. Some couples also like to include their grandparents in their processional! Your processional order should be written from first to walk down the aisle to last - don’t forget to provide this to your officiant and wedding planner! Here’s a processional example:
Officiant (do you want them walking in first to lead the processional or should they already be standing at the alter?)
Grandparents of the Groom
Grandparents of the Bride
Parents of the Groom
Mother of the Bride (don’t forget her escort!)
Groom
Bridesmaids + Groomsmen (decide who is walking together and the order!)
Maid of Honor + Best Man
Ring Bearer
Flower Girl
Bride + Father of the Bride (or person of significance)
At the end of the day you want to create a processional order that feels right to you.
The officiant is in control
You’ll definitely want to make sure that your officiant is in attendance as they are the ones who will be running your ceremony. Finalize your ceremony details with them, give them the processional order as well as your reader’s names. Don’t feel like you need to rehearse everything before your wedding. What do we mean? We mean, don’t have your officiant read their entire ceremony script; you only need a taste to know what to expect on your wedding day!
rehearse with your ceremony music
It will be extremely helpful to rehearse to the music you plan on using for the ceremony. If you aren’t having your rehearsal at a location where a speaker is available, think about bringing your own Bluetooth speaker and pre-download any music that will be played during your ceremony so everyone knows what music they will be walking to!
practice THE PROCESSIONAL
Yes, anyone included in your processional will want to practice walking down the aisle! This will help everyone figure out what pace they should be walking, one that isn’t too fast or too slow. If you don’t have someone coordinating the processional, you’ll want to decide how far each couple should get down the aisle before the next couple starts walking.
don’t overthink your wedding party placement
While you don’t want your wedding party to be too crammed or spaced out, it isn’t necessary to go to great lengths to figure out where each member of your wedding party needs to stand. Start by having all of your wedding party lined up near the altar as if they already walked down the aisle. Now, since the wedding party members who are furthest from the bride and groom will be walking down the aisle first, they will want to remember the distance in which they are standing from the couple. Then when each wedding party member walks down the aisle, they can fill in next to the person who is already at the altar! While it may feel necessary to curve the wedding party to see the bride and groom easily, you will instead want to have your wedding party stand on a flat angle. This will allow your photographer to capture all of your wedding party in one shot!
PRACTICE THE RECESSIONAL
Finally, practice the recessional, or the exit of the wedding party at the end of the ceremony. Make sure everyone knows where to go and when, so that the exit is smooth and coordinated. If you’re taking wedding party pictures immediately following the ceremony, plan on having a location for everyone to meet at so no one gets distracted after the ceremony and pictures can start right away.
By following these tips, you can help ensure that your wedding ceremony rehearsal runs smoothly and that everyone feels confident and prepared for the big day!