• Check with the venue as to availability. Your venue may already be booked the evening prior to your wedding day with another event. Having a rehearsal on Thursday may allow you to wake on your wedding day fresh and better rested than if you were out the night prior!

• Invite only the necessary people: bride, groom, groomsmen, bridesmaids, readers, flower girl, ring-bearer, and parents. Trust me, this will save a lot of time and confusion. Meet with everyone else later at a rehearsal party.

• Have everyone introduce themselves and identify their role in the ceremony.

• Verify the time that everyone will arrive and where they will be prior to the ceremony starting.

• Clarify the path for the processional and practice the processional!

• Decide on a professional format. Will the men be at the front with the groom, or walk up prior to the bridesmaids or as couples with the bridesmaids? Will the flower girl/ring-bearer walk up before the bridesmaids or in front of the bride? Will the standing order for the groomsmen/bridesmaids be by height or other factors?

• Practice the bride’s walk with her escort. Practice the bride’s hug/kiss with her escort and the hug/handshake between the groom and the escort. Practice the groom escorting the bride to the ceremony site.

• Remind the groomsmen to stand with hands slack at their sides or hands in front, left over right hand. No hands in pockets!

• Remind the bridesmaids to carry their bouquets low and tilted forward.

• Remind everyone to stand in a straight or arching line with about an arm’s length of space between them.

• Remind everyone: no gum, no hats, no sunglasses, nothing in their pockets (no phones, no ring boxes, etc.)

• Remember to reserve front-row seats for parents, immediate family, and children at the wedding party. If following tradition, the groom’s family is on the right-hand side and the bride’s family is on the left.

• Clarify who will be holding the ring and how and when it will be handed over to the bride and groom.

• If anyone other than the officiant is doing a reading, or if anyone is singing, decide where they will stand. Will there be a microphone? Where will they pick it up and set it down?

• If the ceremony is happening at a large hall, or especially if it is an outdoor wedding, I strongly advise having a microphone for the officiant and anyone with a speaking or singing part. Ask the venue management, or the DJ, if they are able to provide this service.

• After signing the license, announcements and the presentation as husband and wife, the recessional music will start and the bride and groom walk out, followed by the ushers and bridesmaids, paired up and walking out one couple at a time. Practice the recessional!

• Remind all persons signing the marriage license, to sign with their current legal last name (including the bride who must use her maiden/current name).

• Clarify who will receive the legal documents for safekeeping at the end of the ceremony.

• Thank everyone for coming!

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