What happens at a wedding rehearsal and 3 reasons why you should have one!
One of the real benefits of having a Humanist wedding is that your Humanist Wedding Celebrant will almost always offer you a wedding rehearsal as part of their ‘service’. Now, you might be thinking, why do we want a wedding rehearsal? Will having a wedding rehearsal make the ceremony feel less special? Will it feel awkward role-playing some sort of fake wedding beforehand?
As a wedding celebrant, I will always advise you to consider a wedding rehearsal. So let’s look at what happens:
Practice your ceremony step-by-step
At your wedding rehearsal we will essentially run through the logistics of the ceremony. It’s really helpful to get a sense of where all the people involved in the ceremony are going to be positioned.
At outdoor wedding ceremony locations, this is especially helpful for getting a sense of where the sun is at certain times or any regular background noise. This might influence or change where you were planning to be positioned or where you were expecting your guests to be sat. It’s always helpful if you can avoid people staring directly into the sun. Equally, if there is a noisy train line right by your venue it means the celebrant can prepare to project over the noise.
During the rehearsal, we’ll walk and talk through each stage of the ceremony together, but we won’t be saying any of the really important or meaningful wording. Instead they’ll mostly be placeholders or I’ll talk you through what will be being said ie:
“At this point, I’ll be sharing a little about your story”,
“At this point I’ll welcome Maria to do the first reading”.
If you are including a symbolic act such as handfasting, you may want to actually practice this. That’s, of course, absolutely fine!
Who needs to be at your wedding rehearsal?
While I’ll refer to all the people involved at your ceremony during the rehearsal, I’d actually recommend it’s just the three of us involved unless you strongly want to invite your supporters, attendants or ‘Team Wedding’. Sometimes having more than just the couple present can actually lead to distraction. We can always chat this through.
What if we can’t visit our venue beforehand?
It might be the case that you want a wedding rehearsal, but we can’t get to your ceremony venue in advance. While it is helpful if we can be at the real location, you can still have a wedding rehearsal anywhere convenient for you. We can still talk through all the choreography of your wedding ceremony so you know what to expect.
As you can tell, I’m a big fan of wedding rehearsals. If you’re still deciding whether or not to have a wedding rehearsal, here are three more reasons why I think a wedding rehearsal is a good idea:
We’ll know what to expect come rain or shine!
If you’re planning an outdoor wedding, it’s especially helpful to have a rehearsal so we can plan for any weather related concerns, is there any shade available in case of an especially hot day and any guests feeling unwell? Is there anywhere that could become slippy underfoot at a winter woodland wonderland wedding ceremony? The rehearsal will usually include having a brief run through in your ‘rainy space’, the place your ceremony will take place if the weather is so bad we can’t stick to the plan. (I always do a sunshine dance but it doesn’t always work!)
We’ll nail the logistics so you can focus on the emotion
On the day of your wedding, you’ll likely be feeling a whole host of emotions. By the time you’re at your ceremony, my aim is that the overriding feeling in your brain is one of joy. I also really want you both to be able to be present in every moment. I want you to be experiencing the emotion as you are drinking from the quaich, not worrying about where you’re going to put the cup.
I want you to feel able to listen to the personally written promises your partner is making to you without worrying about if you’re meant to be responding in a certain way. All of these elements will be covered in the rehearsal, leaving you both free to feel every moment on the day.
If you’ve got any bits you're nervous about we can practice - spoiler free!
We will mainly aim to keep all the really meaningful words under wraps until your ceremony itself. However, you may decide you want to run through your handwritten vows, individually with me ahead of the ceremony. Spending a little time, one on one at the rehearsal to run through your vows will really help you feel much more confident delivering them on the day itself. It’s also a great way for you to ask me any questions you have about any of the wording or if you are struggling to get the depth of your feeling across, I’m really happy to help you find the words.
I think you’ll agree that while you may not have considered it before, having a ceremony rehearsal is a really helpful way to make sure you are fully comfortable with your ceremony - and it’s actually a really lovely way to start getting excited about the real thing!