Tips on Conducting Your Wedding Rehearsal

It is normal tradition to hold your rehearsal dinner on the day prior to your wedding. That’s when the festivities really begin. The rehearsal dinner is a great way to get both sides of the family involved and spending time together, while it also serves as an opportunity to practice for one of the biggest days of your life. The problem is most people spend too much time chatting and having a great time instead of learning where they need to be during the ceremony. The rehearsal should be fun, but at the same time, taken very seriously. Here are a few tips to conducting your rehearsal the right way:

Be the leader.
You need to make sure people show up on time and prepared to learn the routine, whether you tell them yourself or your wedding coordinator sets everything up. Most of the wedding party will want some sort of run through for the full program, especially the bride and groom. I want you to think about the purpose of a rehearsal dinner for a second. The bride and groom have put in months and months worth of work preparing for this and making arrangements for this single day. Those arrangements are for this single event, so why not take the time to make sure the actual ceremony is perfect. Otherwise, you’ve wasted all those months if you forget where to stand, etc. The parties involved in the rehearsal are the bride and groom, their parents, the wedding party, and even the musicians that are participating in the event. From the very beginning, make sure everyone knows that they’ll have fun later that night at the dinner, but for now they need to concentrate and listen. Many times you’ll find yourself being like the teacher of a bunch of children, having to constantly remind them to hush and listen. The official or wedding coordinator, of the ceremony will give everyone their cues for the next day, including telling them where they stand, who needs to be escorted, and the order to leave. Knowing where to stand and what to do will make everyone much less nervous the next day when the wedding begins.