=VITAL IMPORTANCE OF REHEARSAL=

Most of us are familiar with the wedding service, and its form seems simple enough.  But, unless one has by experience learned to take care of seemingly non-existent details, the effect (although few may be able to say why) is hitchy and disjointed, and all the effort spent in preparation is wasted.  It is not that gauche happenings are serious offenses, no matter how awkward the incident.  Even were the wedding party to get hopelessly entangled, no “crime” would have been committed; but any detail that destroys the smoothness of the general impression is fatal to dignity—­and dignity is the qualification necessary above all else in ceremonial observances.

=HOW THE PROCESSION IS DRILLED=

The organist must always be at the rehearsal, as one of the most important details is marking the time of the wedding march.  Witnesses of most weddings can scarcely imagine that a wedding march is a march at all; more often than not, the heads of ushers and bridesmaids bob up and down like something boiling in a pan.  A perfectly drilled wedding procession, like a military one, should move forward in perfect step, rising and falling in a block or unit.  To secure perfection of detail, the bars of the processional may be counted so that the music comes to an end at precisely the moment the bride and groom stand side by side at the chancel steps.  This is not difficult; it merely takes time and attention.

A wedding rehearsal should proceed as follows: 

First of all, it is necessary to determine the exact speed at which the march is to be played.  The ushers are asked to try it out.  They line up at the door, walk forward two and two.  The audience, consisting of the bride and her mother, and the bridesmaids, decides whether the pace “looks well.”  It must not be fast enough to look brisk, or so slow as to be funereal.  At one wedding the ushers counted two beats as one and the pace was so slow that they all wabbled in trying to keep their balance.  The painfulness to everyone may be imagined.  On the other hand it is unsuitable to “trot” up the aisle of a church.

The “audience” having decided the speed, and the organist having noted the tempo, the entire procession, including the bridesmaids and a substitute, instead of the real bride, on her father’s arm, go out into the vestibule and make their entry.  Remember, the father is an important factor in the ceremony, and must take part in the rehearsal.

The procession is arranged according to height, the two shortest ushers leading—­unless others of nearly the same height are found to be more accurate pacemakers.  The bridesmaids come directly after the ushers, two and two, also according to height, the shortest in the lead.  After the bridesmaids, the maid (or matron) of honor walks alone; flower girls come next (if there are any) and last of all, the understudy bride leaning on the arm of the father,