Rehearsal

You should definitely show your wedding party around where the rooms they’ll be in are or where things you need them to know are. And run thru the entire ceremony start to finish (minus the vows part) just to get an idea of the flow of things

View Quoted Comment Thank you! I didn't think about showing them the rooms. Thank you so much

Hey there, Ashley!

It would be important to have anyone who will be participating in some way at the ceremony rehearsal. This includes who will be walking you down the aisle, doing readings, etc. It's also a great time to familiarize any kids with what they'll be doing!

Unless the ushers are very young and are nervous, you wouldn't need to have them there, You could just talk them through their role

Do the procession in and out. There are templates on line that can help you out with the order. I'm a teacher, and one thing that helps line up my kids is making them responsable of remember who's in-front of them and who is behind them. If everyones remember who's who and where they go, it shouldn't be a problem.

We don't have a wedding planner either, and we have a friend officiating our ceremony so the whole thing will be very much a grassroots effort with little professional intervention.

We are inviting our officiant friend, members of the wedding party, our parents, my FH's sister (if she wants to come, it doesn't actually matter if she is there at all), and SO's of all those previously mentioned. We're expecting it to be about 20 people total. We don't have ushers, a flower girl, ring bearer (well our dog may be the ring bearer), or other people involved in our wedding ceremony. Our wedding is outdoors at a farm.

Our plan for the rehearsal is:

1) Show people around the venue, so they know what is where. This way on the day of the wedding, folks will know where to retrieve items, where the wedding parties are getting ready (so which spaces to avoid), bathrooms, etc. Kinda like a mini-venue tour.

2) Introduce everyone to one another as well as the venue owner (who is also the caterer) just so faces become familiar and there is less day of confusion. Our wedding parties and rehearsal dinner will be pretty small, so we thing doing individual introductions emphasizes the personal connections that are so important to us, and it will be nice for people who are the significant others of those involved and really don't know anyone else.

3) Walk through the ceremony, including the timing of our procession. We won't necessarily say all the words, but want to get a sense of the order of things, and may do some parts in full to get a better sense of timing.

4) Review a bit of our plan for the reception, so people know when toasts/speeches are dances, photos, etc.

5) Go over any preparation for the next day - like timing of getting ready, setting up last minute decor and such, etc.

6) Eat dinner and enjoy one another's company.

View Quoted Comment This is very detailed! Thank you so much!