Your Wedding Rehearsal, Wedding Music and More

I didn't plan on learning a lot about weddings, but after performing many as a minister, I've seen just about everything. Here are five tips for you from my experience with weddings.

One, realize that something won't go just right. Fortunately, it usually isn't too big a deal. People sometimes ask me what disasters I've seen at weddings and I have to really try to think of something. It's just little things that really don't ruin the event.

Two, spend some time planning your wedding rehearsal. That's one way to keep anything really bad from happening. Hire a professional wedding planner/director if you can. A lot of couples that didn't, have told me they wish they had. You don't realize how many details there are to a wedding until you start planning it. A good wedding planner will help you manage those details and should even be able to save you some money.

And, if they are good, they will spend time with you before the rehearsal determining how you want things to go. The rehearsal is not the time to make most of the decisions. If you wait til then, you'll have plenty of advice from family and friends! The rehearsal is a time to practice what you have already decided on.

Three, have a Plan B if you are including small children in your ceremony. They get bored quickly, and what they do can be cute at first but after awhile they become a distraction from your ceremony. And they sometimes get embarrassed and upset, and of course that's not what you wanted. So have a family member close by who can scoop up the child, or you may want to do like many couples and have the children process in and then go immediately to sit with a family member. That way they get seen in all their cuteness and they have fun being a part of the wedding, but then get to get off to the side and color or play with their doll.

Four, use live wedding music if possible. It sounds better and it's easier for a good musician to time the music with the flow of the wedding. The thing I've seen mess up most at weddings is recorded music. Even professional DJ's can have unexpected problems with their sound systems. It's not so much their fault, just the nature of anything mechanical - to mess up when you least want it to.

Five, find a minister or officiant who has wedding experience. Yes, I'm prejudiced here no doubt. But weddings have to go so-so, and even ministers who don't do many weddings can have problems. And what do you do when something unexpected happens in the ceremony? An experienced officiant will have likely seen it before and will know what to do or say. If your minister or officiant hasn't performed many weddings, you'll want to make sure they are able to come to the rehearsal.

Use these tips for your wedding and you are well on your way to having a wedding ceremony to remember!