There are many reasons why having a wedding rehearsal is a good idea, if you have guests and/or a bridal party. Doing a run-through of it before it happens in front of a crowd will make it seem natural and help avoid some common pitfalls and hints of awkwardness.
Now, if the ceremony involves just you, your partner, and the celebrant plus a few witnesses; you have a straightforward entrance and aisle; and music that doesn’t need super specific cues, I’ll give you a rehearsal pass, unless you want one… then have one!
Otherwise, you’ll want your wedding rehearsal filled with as much of your wedding party as possible if you have people who are:
My suggestion is that numbers of those attending at the rehearsal be kept to the minimum, otherwise there’ll be no surprises on the day.
It’s also good to have one person in charge; this is not a good time for direction by committee. Even if you don’t have a planner/coordinator, designate one person to run the show and keep everybody on task.” Your celebrant is a great option, or anyone else who is good at keeping a group relatively focused.
To be clear: what doesn’t happen at a wedding rehearsal is a full read-through of the entire ceremony. If you want to do this, you certainly should do it with your partner, your celebrant, and anyone else who’s speaking (and, regardless, you should all practice your parts out loud individually). But you shouldn’t read through every word of the ceremony at the wedding rehearsal where you have a decent-sized audience of people who are going to hear it all again the next day.
So, what exactly are rehearsals for?
After your rehearsal you will feel empowered and relaxed.
And, a final note: I generally have couples plan on an hour for a wedding rehearsal. 15 minutes for everyone to arrive and chat (especially if it’s a group that hasn’t been in the same place in awhile), 30 minutes to guide everyone through it, 10 minutes to run through it without my help, and 5 minutes to answer questions or get an early dismissal. Easy! But important.
This content was originally published here.