Rehearsal Not At The Venue

We rarely do rehearsals because honestly, it's walking and standing no matter how many people are in the party. They walk up to the front, they make a turn, they go and stand. When you come up the aisle, all eyes are on you, so if we need to mush people around a little, no one is watching us. Most of my venues don't do them the night before, and trust me, by the night before? You'll be craving time with no plans. Adults can manage this if you've organized the processional, which should be done way before the wedding day.

We typically put the processional order together ahead of time, color code it and send it to the couple and the venue. I'm there an hour ahead, we walk through the processional (with or without the bride) and that's the end of the story. If you have a great, experienced officiant and a good DOC, this shouldn't be an issue at all. I have literally done less than 20 rehearsals in all the weddings I've done.

Rehearsing elsewhere is pointless if you're thinking the prime reason to rehearse is to navigate the aisle and figure out where people are standing.

Your DJ can loop your music, so no worries there.

Part of the theme here is having great pros, good communication and a plan.

Rehearsing is not necessary at all. And rehearsing kids is fruitless and frustrating.

Thanks everyone for your input. It definitely eased my concerns a lot. While I often hear here that rehearsals aren't necessary, I honestly couldn't imagine not having one. A small wedding pet peeve of mine is when the bridal party walks so fast up the aisle and forget to smile. So the rehearsal is really to go over timing with music and cues for my group so they feel more comfortable the next day. Both my DOC and officiant are well experienced but recommended rehearsal a rehearsal for such a large group.

Rehearsing isn't going to fix that. The DOC will remind them to take their time, she/he will cue the DJ or musicians.

I was a BM in my cousins wedding and we rehearsed at his house. It was fine. We just needed to visualize the order and timing.

We're doing a run through early morning of. Venue is not available the evening before, and not everyone will be in town until that morning. Half of me doesn't see the point of it in the first place.

I'm in the same boat as you. My DOC assures me she's worked with this situation before. If yours says it can be done, trust her.

Following

Once again; you don't set the order at the rehearsal. You plan it out ahead of time.

And if you do it early in the week and half of your bridal party isn't there?

It's totally pointless.

If the venue allows walk through beforehand, totally do-able. It might mean an additional meeting with the key people. It would be ideal to do a walk through the coordinator and maybe the officiant on talk through layout, timeline and etc.

If you are doing a rehearsal with the bridal party, the rehearsal can be done somewhere else. Work it out with the rehearsal attendees on the mock setup (i.e. pretend where the doors open, pretend this is where the vows are exchange). This requires a bit more coordination. Totally possible!

Aisle

You can do the rehearsal at a different location than the ceremony. No big deal.

S&J, unfortunately the rehearsal isn't going to fix them walking fast and smiling. All that is going to go out the window day of.

I agree that you should have the rehearsal at the hotel.

I mean honestly though, it really isn't a big deal if they walk fast. And the DOC can always remind them of that the second before they walk.

Thanks for posting this question OP. We were dealing with the same thing. The chapel we chose is booked almost every day, so rehearsal time is limited. But, we found out that the hotel our BP is staying at has a large banquet space with adjoined rooms separated by a partition. On one side of that room we will clear the space and have the rehearsal of the ceremony, and rehearsal dinner is on the other side. Rehearsals outside the ceremony site are fine!

I keep trying to get out of doing a rehearsal, but FH swears his parents "need" one so they know what to do. Ummm..... they're walking in with him. Then sitting down. I think they can handle it, but we'll see if I can convince him we can skip it.

ETA: I don't really see a point in rehearsing somewhere that isn't the venue. Maybe talking about anything odd or extra people have to do - but bridal parties usually walk, and the stand or sit, and then walk again - pretty sure we can all do that or have another method of getting around, and practicing walking in a different room won't help me walk any better down your aisle.

Can you have your rehearsal at your venue a different day/night? My wedding is on a Saturday and my rehearsal at the venue will be on the Thursday before because there is a wedding the Friday night before our wedding

View Quoted Comment I totally get the people walking and order can be done wherever, even with a lager party - like I will be having. But, I want to make sure the venue plays the music on time and at the right volume. I’m being told the same thing - do the rehearsal offsite bc they may be having an event the night before my wedding. Ok, no problem so let’s make sure your people get the music played at an appropriate volume and time. I was in a wedding last year and you couldn’t hear the music AT ALL! I would freak. Music is very, very important to me when it comes to this day. Hoping I can sort something out with them- like even just come by a few days or weeks even, before the wedding and have them play my music so I can make sure a) it works in their system properly and b) the volume is appropriate. Bridezilla out - lol!

We are getting married on a Saturday but if they book a wedding that Friday then we won't be able to do a rehearsal. If that happens we have two options: 1) find somewhere else to do it or 2) do it the morning of the wedding.

I plan on just finding somewhere else (like our hotel) if this happens. If we had to, I would do it the morning of but I wouldn't actually be at it. We aren't doing a first look so my DOC suggested just having everyone else but me there to do it. All I have to do is walk up and down the aisle anyways so that is my worst case scenario.