Weddingbee Blog

I have to admit, I was nervous as we headed to the wedding rehearsal. In theatreland, a bad rehearsal means a good show, but a bad wedding rehearsal for me would have completely stressed me out. I’ve seen many a Bridezilla episode where the wedding party doesn’t show up on time, or they aren’t listening to important instructions or other general chaos ensues. While I knew our wedding party was filled with responsible people, I was still nervous.

Most of our wedding party hadn’t been to the art gallery before, so the first few minutes were spent taking a look around at the amazing art. Just like most traditional wedding rehearsals, we started by getting in our positions at the front of the ceremony, recessing as if the ceremony were over, and then processing into our original positions. Our DOC quickly took charge, showing everyone where to line up—girls on one side, and guys on the other.

All photos by family and friends

Since the gallery was going to be open during much of the day on Saturday, the chairs for the guests and platform for King Hippo, our officiant, and me to stand on couldn’t be moved in yet. Everyone just had to use their imagination for the rehearsal, and it seemed to work out just fine. Once everyone was in place, our officiant took over, walking us through the ceremony from start to finish. We had gone over the ceremony with him many months earlier and had also seen the order of the ceremony more recently, so the rehearsal of the actual ceremony was pretty straight forward.

After recessing, we lined up for the processional. Now, if you remember this post about my bridal party, I had one maid of honor, three bridesmaids and five ladies in the house party. We were having the ladies in the house party walk down the aisle first and then sit down in an assigned seat, while the bridesmaids processed and stayed standing at the front of the ceremony. It wasn’t until we got lined up to process that I noticed that one of the members of the house party wasn’t there.

“Wait a minute…where is Elaine?!?”

(Left to right) Not Elaine. Not Elaine. Not Elaine. Not Elaine.

Now, just for a little background…I love Elaine. However. Punctuality is not her strong suit. She is the girl you have to tell to meet you at 6:00, when you really want her there at 6:30, and then you don’t really expect her much before 6:45. In all the excitement and anxiousness of the rehearsal, I hadn’t even noticed she was missing. Apparently I was the only one who had been oblivious to her absence, as the other girls had known during the ceremony rehearsal that she wasn’t there and, not wanting me to flip out, just kept the info to themselves (clearly, they have all been brides themselves!). But, I didn’t go Bridezilla. Sure, it was annoying, but what can you do? She’s been in plenty of weddings before, so it’s not like she really needed to rehearse and in the big scheme of things, it wasn’t the end of the world. I channeled my zen bride and kept it movin’.

Did you have any unexpected no-shows at your wedding rehearsal? Did you keep it calm or flip the f’ out?