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Heather
Expert April 2020

Rehearsal dinner and ceremony processional

Heather, on May 10, 2019 at 9:33 AM Posted in Etiquette and Advice 0 15

First, are you having a casual, formal, black tie, or white tie wedding?

Who all did (are) you invite to the rehearsal dinner? Are you inviting spouses and step family?

Who all was (is) in the ceremony processional (or rather who all is walking down the aisle before the bride, but after the guests)?

How do you feel about the groom walking down twice (once with the eldest family member, second with the his mom)? I can't stand the idea of anyone walking down twice or walking alone (just my personal preference, I don't judge anyone who does this). I see it as tacky for the groom especially to walk down twice (I mean, I only get to walk down once. Haha.).

Just trying to see what everyone is doing because my FH and I are in a disagreement about these things even though we originally agreed on them. Smiley amazing

15 Comments

Latest activity by Courtney, on May 11, 2019 at 11:02 AM
  • Future Mrs. K
    VIP June 2019
    Future Mrs. K ·
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    Our wedding is formal. We invited parents, grandparents, siblings, bridal party and their dates, and out of town guests to our rehearsal dinner. Spouses are invited, stepfamily is not. My stepdad is coming but we don't really have a relationship with his family and they aren't invited to the wedding or anything. Our processional is: officiant walks down the aisle, FH, BM, and the groomsmen will walk up to the altar from the side (I don't like having them come down the aisle personally), FH's grandfather and grandmother will walk down and go to their seats, my grandfather and his girlfriend will walk down and got to their seats, FH's parents will walk down and go their seats, my mom and my stepdad will walk down and go to their seats, then each of my bridesmaids will walk down alone followed by my MOH, then my two grandmas who are my flower girls will come down, then me and my dad. You can honestly do this however you feel works best for you, I've seen it done so many different ways you really can't go wrong. I personally didn't want anyone walking down twice because I just feel like it looks messy and it bothers me so I agree with you there.

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  • Alyssa
    Super September 2019
    Alyssa ·
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    1. Our wedding is formal and definitely leaning more towards the black tie end than the casual end of things!

    2. I am really picky at who is coming to the rehearsal dinner. I have decided I only want the people who are in the wedding to be there. So we are not inviting spouses, step family, grandparents , etc. We will have the wedding party, our parents, the readers, ushers, etc.

    3. Our ceremony processional will be the parents of the bride, parents of the groom, grandparents, bridesmaids, ring bearer, flower girl. Groomsmen will come in the side of the church up to the front and so will FH.

    4. My FH is not walking down before he comes in with his groomsmen. He has a younger brother who is acting as a junior groomsman/ usher. He will walk in his mom and grandma! I kind of agree. I don't love the idea of my FH being seen a ton of time before the actual wedding!

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  • Heather
    Expert April 2020
    Heather ·
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    Just curious, if you are having the grandparents walk down in the processional, why are they not invited to the rehearsal and dinner as well? Is it because walking down the aisle doesn't necessarily have to be practiced?

    Long story, short - both my grandparents and parents are divorce and remarried. My biological grandfather is the officiant, so he will have to be invited. And both my parents will have to be there, but what about all their spouses (step grandparents/parents)? And if I invite them, what about my biological grandmother and her husband? I don't want to exclude her if I invite my step-grandmother because she's married to the officiant.

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  • Alyssa
    Super September 2019
    Alyssa ·
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    I should have probably been more specific, I'm sorry! We both only have one set of grandparents left on each side and we have decided to use them as our readers so they have a role in the ceremony.

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  • Sarah
    Master September 2019
    Sarah ·
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    1. Our wedding will be formal.
    2. We don’t have step-family members but all spouses/children of our wedding party will be invited to the rehearsal dinner as well as my parents, our grandparents and FH’s aunt (stand in for his mom who passed away)
    3. Processional will be FH with his grandmother, then my grandparents (2 sets), FH and his aunt, Best Man with my mom, groomsmen, bridesmaids, MOH, flower girl, and then my dad and I. It was really important to FH that he walk both his grandmother and his aunt because of the roles they’ve played in his life so he’ll be walking twice.
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  • Mandi
    Master October 2020
    Mandi ·
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    Formal-ish. We're just naturally very casual people.

    Rehersal dinner.
    Wedding party, wedding party spouses, wedding party kids.
    Flower girls and their parents.
    My mom and dad.
    His mom and dad.
    Probably one of his grandmothers.

    Processional:
    I guess

    his grandparents
    Grandmother
    My grandmother
    His parents


    Not sure if we plan to have him and all groomsmen enter at once or walk down aisle.

    All bridesmaids
    MOH
    Flower girls and ring bearers

    Me walking down with both of my parents.

    I just dont care how many times he walks down. So I'll figure that out later. Our ushers are his brothers and sisters so we will figure that out closer.
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  • NextChapterReady
    Super October 2019
    NextChapterReady ·
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    Our dress is Black Tie Optional. We are inviting our family including moms, dads, siblings, bridesmaids and groomsmen (and their significant others), aunts, uncles, cousins, and the priest to the rehearsal dinner! My fiance will be standing at the altar and won't actually walk down the aisle. Our grandmothers, mothers, my sister, bridesmaids escorted by groomsmen, ring bearer and flower girls will be walking down the aisle. Hope this helps!

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  • Nemo
    Master August 2018
    Nemo ·
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    Ours was semi-formal/cocktail attire. Our rehearsal dinner included our parents, grandparents, wedding party and their dates/parents (for the junior brides-people), and our pastor and his wife. I think we had 35 people?

    Processional:

    -H's grandparents

    -My grandparents

    -Mother of the groom and H (H then went off to the side and entered with the pastor, I think. I know they did something extra but I don't remember what)

    -Stepmother of the bride and her escort (my cousin)

    -Mother of the bride and her escort (my sister)

    -Junior bridesmaid and bridesman

    -Bridesmaid/groomsman

    -Bridesmaid/groomsman

    -MOH/groomsman

    -MOH/best man

    -Bride and father of the bride

    I've seen the groom walk down multiple times before, and I think it looks fine, but just make sure there is enough time for him to get to the back before walking his mom down. I was at a wedding once where the groom was nearly sprinting to the back to get there in time to walk his daughter down (she was the flower girl) after walking his mom down.

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  • Heather
    Expert April 2020
    Heather ·
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    FH's mom is freaking out over 32 guests at the rehearsal dinner...it's definitely not a financial issue (trust me, they are wellllll off). Yet has been trying to get me to agree to more expensive things for the reception, which my dad is paying for (not her). Which I'm not giving into that, but how frustrating. Haha. Like if you are going to complain, please don't offer financial help.

    That's another thing, due to a person family tradition he wants to walk his grandmother down and his mom is very adamant about him walking her down. They are going to be kind of close and the sanctuary is pretty long, so I wouldn't want him trying to sprint to get back there. I don't think there is anything wrong with people walking twice, I just personally don't think it's necessary in our situation. It would also leave his dad walking alone, which I don't like anyone walking alone either. I know, I'm weird. Haha.

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  • Nemo
    Master August 2018
    Nemo ·
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    We had a (very very very) minor rift over our rehearsal dinner too. H's parent's wanted to host it at their country club and invite the wedding party (no dates), parents, grandparents, and the pastor. I felt uncomfortable with that and so we compromised and held it at a local nice restaurant. It ended up being perfect! The food was delicious and it was cheaper to host 35 people at the restaurant than it was to host 20/25 at the country club. Plus, the restaurant was sentimental to us since that is where I met his parents for the first time.

    I totally get it. H's dad walked alone (forgot to include him in our processional) and followed H and his mom. Is there a female cousin or other close relative that could escort your dad down? Or a sibling of his, perhaps? If you had the dad coming down prior to his mom, that would give a bit of extra time. The logistics for this stuff is so tricky!

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  • Arkilia
    Super November 2021
    Arkilia ·
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    1. Cocktail Dress or formal I think
    2. Rehearsal Dinner- wedding party, their families, flower girls and their parents. Parents, ushers and God mothers.
    3. The officiant, our oldest daughter is walking fiance down, my brother in law is walking my gram down, his brother in law walking his gram down, his brother and father are walking his mom in. My brother is walking my mom in. MOH × 2 and bridesmaids ×2 and our middle and youngest 2 daughters are walking in alone, ring bearer and 2 flower girls then my dad and me.
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  • Melissa
    VIP September 2019
    Melissa ·
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    Our wedding will be formal. For the rehearsal dinner it will be our bridal party and their significant others, immediate families, my grandmother and one of his aunts that is from out of state.
    As for the processional, we will have the groomsmen enter minus my brother, who will join them after he escorts my grandmother down the aisle, then his parents together, bridesmaids/ring bearer (walking with my sister bc he’s little), then me and my dad.
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  • Jennifer
    Expert October 2019
    Jennifer ·
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    This will not be very helpful, but we'll see. Our wedding is formal, but daytime, so dress-code is semi-formal, and it's a garden wedding, so it's going to be a bit lighter. The word "casual" does not belong, though.
    We aren't having a rehearsal dinner. My dad won't be in town until late the night before the wedding, and we don't expect FH's parents to be in much earlier.

    We also aren't having anyone process except our bridal party and ourselves. My dad will escort me, FH's parents will already be seated, my mom is deceased. No grandparents. BM and FH are walking alone. My MoH is also walking alone. A bigger bridal party wouldn't change this. It would just change the pace/song choice.

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  • Deirdre
    Super March 2018
    Deirdre ·
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    I would say my wedding was semi-formal.

    For the rehearsal dinner, we invited:

    All wedding party members and their spouses (I personally think it's rude to not invite spouses, but not all spouses came)

    None of my siblings were in the wedding, but I invited them all as well as my nieces and nephews and their spouses (all my siblings live out of state). I included my step brother and step sister in this.

    My parents (my mom died and my dad is remarried, so I have a step mom, but I didn't have a mother there as well)

    My dad's best friend from England (my dad asked if he could come and he's like a second father to me, plus he traveled really far for my wedding)

    My MIL invited some of her out of town family (I didn't invite mine because all my relatives were out of state except for my parents and one cousin and it would have been a second wedding, where all family, but the one cousin came to which I didn't want).

    For the processional, the GM and my H walked in and we had mother and father of the groom walk in. My step brother walked in with my step mom, then BMs and I walked in with my dad.

    Neither of us have living grandparents, so we didn't have to worry about that.

    I haven't been to a wedding where the groom walks down twice, but I don't think there is anything necessarily wrong with that. If I were you, I would maybe have him walk down with his mom and pick someone else to walk down the eldest family member. It could be the best man or another close family member.

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  • Courtney
    Master December 2019
    Courtney ·
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    1) Wedding is semi-formal, rehearsal is casual.

    2) We're expecting 30-40 people: parents, siblings and dates, wedding party and dates, officiant, flower girl and ring bearers, and FH's out-of-town guests.

    Who all was (is) in the ceremony processional (or rather who all is walking down the aisle before the bride, but after the guests)?

    3) FOG escorting MOG and grandma

    MOB escorted by my brother

    Officiant

    Groom and groomsmen

    Bridesmaids #4, #3, #2, and MOH in that order

    Flower girl and ring bearers

    Me and my dad

    4) He could escort them at the same time. Or you could have an usher escort your family member.

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