You’ve made it to the end of the planning! You can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Your wedding day is just weeks away. So the next big to-do on your list is the wedding rehearsal. This is the time to practice saying I do and getting all of the nerves out! Bridesmaids and Groomsman will practice walking down the aisle. But how do you make sure to use this practice time efficiently? After all, a lot of ceremony venues only allow a small window of time for rehearsals. The answer is knowing who is doing what!
- Who’s walking who?
Take time before the rehearsal to think about how you want your ceremony to look. Do you want a traditional ceremony? Or maybe you want to make a statement? Either way, you need to decide how your wedding party, parents, grandparents, flower girls and anyone else involved is walking down the aisle. Are bridesmaids and groomsman paired or do they walk separate? If you decide to pair up your wedding party, make sure to consider height or relationships. Consider how you want everyone to stand as this will impact the look of your pictures.
- Who’s running the show?
For wedding rehearsals and the day of the wedding, you need to decide who is running the show. The worst thing that you can do is have no one making the decisions and no one in control…or worse yet, have multiple leaders for your day! Make it clear to everyone involved who that main contact is. If you’ve hired a wedding planner, it’s easy to let them take charge. If you haven’t hired one, often times wedding venues will provide a wedding coordinator who can take on that role if need be. Just make sure you have someone that is reliable and trustworthy there to take charge and help things run as smooth as possible.
- Who is performing?
A lot of times during rehearsals, couples might opt to run through a shortened version of the ceremony. This is the time to make sure everyone that is performing is accounted for. For example, if you have a family member speaking or reading anything during the ceremony, you need to make sure they are well-practiced and ready to go! Your officiant might also run through what he has planned.
- Who’s got the details?
At this point you will also want to remember any last details you want at your ceremony. Do you want your officiant to tell guests to silence their phones? Or how about a parting announcement telling guests where to go after the ceremony? You will also want to consider who needs to stay behind afterwards to participate in family portraits. Oh, and don’t forget the rings!!
We hope these questions give you a good place to start. We understand how overwhelming venue shopping can be, but with a plan in hand, it can be a little easier for you! And we always say that once you get the venue down and a date set, the rest seems to flow a little easier. Best of luck to you!
