Rehearsal without officiant and music?

I've never heard of this happening before, but I imagine it has at some point.

Here's a breakdown of how to hold your own wedding rehearsal: Wedding Rehearsal

For the music, you can probably play whatever song you've chosen for the Processional and play it from a Smart Phone. Make sure you go over the timing of everyone walking.

Go over with your officiant the basic necessities of your ceremony before the rehearsal. This way you'll know what you need to cover during the rehearsal.

I’m a musician and I’ve only ever played at one rehearsal. I would always be willing to come for a small fee because I still have to allot time and travel, but no one wants to pay it. I think it’s helpful but not necessary. All the musician really needs to know is when you’re ready to start and how many people are in your wedding party and they can handle the rest. However, your officiant really does need to be there since they’re basically running everything. Have you already paid a deposit? If not I would keep looking.

We didn’t have music at our rehearsal just our officiant.

As long as your musicians know when to change the music ie when procession starts and after flower girl
for bride you will be fine. They will know to start music once you are announced as well. Don’t stress about the music

I had to pay $100 for one musician of my string duo to come to my rehearsal. Perhaps if you offered to pay them they would come? As for the officiant, I think it's important for that person to be there. Have they said why they won't come?

My good friend got married and for her rehearsal the officiant was unable to come as well, as he was flying from North Dakota. If the officiant is doing a pre-written ceremony, they most likely have it under control if they are unable to come to the rehearsal. Her officiant didn’t miss a beat, because he’s done so many weddings that it’s second nature to him

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That link is an amazing resource! Thank you!

We're having live musicians play at the ceremony, and they're not coming to the rehearsal (our officiants will be there, though). I could've paid an extra $100 for the musicians to come to the rehearsal but decided against it. They said they would record versions of all my ceremony songs for free so I could practice with them the at the rehearsal, though. You could ask if yours could send some recordings of the songs you're having for the ceremony so you can rehearse with them!

I actually didn't know this was a thing.. I thought rehearsals were silly but we are still doing one. Our officiant is a friend of ours so that I'm not worried about. I don't have our DJ coming though and they are doing all of our music ceremony and all. I guess if they don't come you can just use a phone and speaker?

I haven't heard of having a rehearsal without the officiant....BUT normally you don't have the music to rehearse to. If you have a DOC, they can help with your rehearsal. Otherwise, I'd just have your wedding party meet up and practice walking together and learn their order.

It's not really a rehearsal without the officiant. But if you have his template or script then maybe have someone read off it