wedding planning

Like many aspects of wedding décor, ice sculptures have returned to the top trends list after a brief absence, having gotten a style makeover and a big boost in intricacy of patterns and presentation. Here at The The Manor in West Orange, our in-house master ice sculptors – a father and son team who have been part of our family for over 30 years – have created gorgeous ice sculptures for display in our wedding banquet rooms and at our outdoor garden weddings. Our sophisticated, style-savvy New Jersey and New York City brides and grooms consult with our ice sculptors in order to select and co-design beautiful ice sculptures matching their wedding’s themes and colors, to accent their cocktail hours, their reception décor, and even their location entryways to make a fabulous first impression on guests.

This resurgence of stunningly-cut, intricately-detailed and beautifully-lit ice sculptures as seen in our wedding venue makes the couple’s wedding décor stand out with the kind of attention to detail that’s often seen at celebrity weddings and royal weddings.

Here are the top trends in ice sculpture designs for your wedding:

• Welcome guests to your indoor wedding venue by placing a 5-foot or taller ice sculpture on a gorgeous table set right inside the entrance doors. Surround the ice sculpture with low-set fresh flowers in small glass or crystal bowls or vases to carry the ‘ice’ effect across the entirety of the table.

• Choose a unique theme and shape for your wedding décor ice sculpture. Our Passaic County, Morris County, Somerset County and other regional wedding couples have recently looked beyond the traditional oversized heart to such wedding symbols as intertwined wedding rings, wedding doves, and wedding swans. With a garden wedding theme in mind, many wedding couples have commissioned ice sculptures in the shapes of butterflies, hummingbirds, floral bouquets, and seasonal and cultural shapes may also be expertly carved and intricately finished in a unique design.

• Engrave your names, initials or monogram on one, central, focal-point décor piece to personalize your ice sculpture ‘collection’ throughout your reception rooms and wedding gardens, or feature your full names on this one, large ‘centerpiece’ sculpture, while the additional, smaller ones feature just your initials.

• Lighting effects now make the ice sculpture a true work of art, with ice design artists training décor effects lighting on the ice sculpture from above, and also from within the ice sculpture. White, pastels or bright colors are used like paints on an easel to create the perfect, complimentary effect for an ice sculpture, and wedding décor takes a modern twist when eco-friendly LED light blocks are placed inside smaller ice sculptures.

• Speaking of smaller ice sculptures, it’s becoming a beautiful wedding décor trend to set small, individual ice sculptures as the centerpieces on each of the wedding room guest tables. Choose an identical style for each table, or select different theme-coordinating designs – such as different flowers or different butterflies – for each table.

• Set themed ice sculptures on your buffet tables, as décor on food stations, and also behind your cocktail bar. The design of each sculpture is sure to impress in its size and detailing, as well as its sparkling in the room’s lighting.

• A fun aspect of a cocktail party bar setting is offering a more refined twist on the ‘ice luge’ that you might see in more casual lounges or collegiate nightclubs. In this more upscale presentation, our bar managers pour flavored vodkas or other liquors down an intricate, impressive ice luge and into a stylish serving glass.

• Also at the bar, our ice sculpture masters can create ice blocks in squares or cylinder shapes, fill them with ice shavings, and place cone-shaped vodka glasses or stemless drink glasses in them for a stylish any-season drinks presentation. Especially when they feature a glowing block of colorful LED light below the ice shaving surface, giving this ice sculpture a magical, gemlike effect.

Thank you,

The Manor

We’re seeing a wonderful trend among our brides and their bridal parties – the brides have named two of their closest friends or sisters as their co-maids of honor. These lucky brides experienced the enviable dilemma of having two fabulous, supportive women close to them, and when it came time to decide which would be their maid of honor, they decided not to choose.

The role of maid of honor is a sizeable one, with many assisting tasks, shopping trips, online searches, and especially planning a bridal shower and perhaps a bachelorette party for the bride. It’s actually quite wise to hand this role to two maids of honor, dividing the time-consuming responsibilities among them. Each spends half the time, tackles half the To-Do list, spends half the money, and the bride experiences the relief of knowing her wedding tasks are in good hands.

If you’re fascinated by the idea of having two maids of honor, here are some of the ways that your closest ladies can divide the tasks associated with the role:

• By location. A best friend who lives in your hometown can easily accompany you on dress-shopping expeditions, as many of our brides have reported of their own gown searches in Short Hills, Princeton, and other top shopping meccas in New Jersey. The second maid of honor can take on the lion’s share of online research on trends, bouquet designs, cake designs, etiquette answers and more.

• By personal interest. A sister who loves fashion may be the perfect candidate to lead the bridesmaids in their dress search and selection, and a friend who has a talent and passion for graphic design may create your Save the Date cards, wedding invitations, shower invitations, wedding programs and more.

• By financial position. A maid of honor who is in a higher tax bracket than the other may volunteer to take on the pricier tasks, such as booking a limousine for the bachelorette party, while the co-maid of honor tackles more time-consuming yet inexpensive tasks such as tracking down shower guests’ current mailing addresses.

Two of the most important roles of the maid of honor are holding the bride’s bouquet during the ceremony and signing the marriage license, so divide these tasks among your two maids of honors so that one gets the bouquet to hold and the other gets the pen to sign with. Both maids of honor can walk in the processional side-by-side to show their equal ranking in the bridal party, and of course you’ll title your unmarried friend or sister a maid of honor while a married friend or sister would be given the title matron of honor, according to age-old wedding etiquette rules. Whatever their title, your two maids of honor — or honor attendants, as you may wish to call them – will be there for you every step of the way, to help you plan, support you emotionally, and wish you well in this new chapter of your life.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

A growing trend in wedding décor is the creative showcasing of the bride’s and groom’s family wedding photographs. It’s long been a tradition, especially among our New Jersey wedding couples, to display framed family wedding portraits at the reception, giving guests the chance to see the bride’s and groom’s parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and siblings in their fabulous wedding day attire, standing before stunning scenery in a wedding garden or aligned on a grand staircase. Especially in wedding portraits from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, the details of the bride’s dress and bouquet can be quite breathtaking.

Such a display pays tribute not just to wedding fashion, but to the couple’s relatives and ancestors, including the marriage relationships that served as great inspirations to the bride and groom. Relatives in attendance at the wedding are especially touched to see generations of family honored in this way.

You’re not limited to the traditional arrangement of family photos lined up on a long table by the reception’s entrance, as you’ve likely seen time and time again at other weddings. Today’s fresh take on family photos as wedding décor offers the following display trends:

• Switch family photos carefully from their original frames into all-matching, coordinated frames such as sleek and simple silver frames or ornate filigree frames for a unified look.

• Display family wedding photos in colored frames, including pastel pearlized designs or brightly-hued frames.

• Scan all of your differently-sized family wedding photos and print them onto photo quality card stock in 3”x5” or 4”x6” size. Frame each small photo in a clear plastic frame, and use colorful or black and white ribbon to hang each from a potted, living ‘family tree’ that stands next to your guest book table. After the wedding, the potted tree comes home with you and is planted on your property.

• Display photo frames at different heights. Place some on table level, and some on glass or decorative ceramic footed pedestals of varying heights, with a collection of colorful votive candles and flower petals interspersed between them.

• Pair each framed photo with a separate, smaller frame containing your computer-printed notes on who’s in each picture, where and when the photo was taken, and perhaps even a treasured anecdote about that couple.

• Skip the framed photos and edit a slideshow of family wedding photos that play on a small plasma television set on your guest book table.

• Replace the ‘all about us’ video montage that opens some wedding receptions with a ‘memory lane’ video presentation featuring wonderful family wedding portraits and other images. Guests will be so impressed that you chose to open your reception with a tribute to the loved ones who came before you, displaying the importance you place on family and your lineage.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Your path down the aisle can be a beautiful, personalized one with your custom-designed aisle runner leading you toward your groom. We’ve seen many stunning aisle runner designs here at the The Manor in West Orange, and we’re pleased to share with you the top trends in aisle runner design.

• Today’s beautiful aisle runners are made from high-quality fabrics, having evolved beautifully from the early days of aisle runners that were very similar in feel to a heavy-duty paper towel roll that often bunched up and tripped up the bride and groom and their guests. The new world of aisle runner fabrics are heavier, often top-grade cottons, providing the all-important secure surface you’ll want beneath your feet.

• Aisle runners are also being made from organic fabrics, such as natural organic cotton and even hemp, pleasing eco-conscious brides and grooms.

• White designs are still very popular for brides and grooms who love the traditional bridal look, and we’re also seeing many aisle runners in beautiful pastel colors such as lavender and sage green. We’re also seeing bright colors such as dramatic reds, jewel-toned purples, and summery oranges and yellows.

• Creative graphics such as a cluster of butterflies decorate the start of the new, modern aisle runner, so talk with your designer to choose the theme icon that best fits your formal or garden wedding wishes.

• Today’s aisle runners feature the bride’s and groom’s first names, or monogram, printed in a beautiful font and in a gorgeous coordinating color at the start of the runner.

• At our garden weddings, many of our New Jersey brides and grooms choose to skip the fabric aisle runner and instead mark their aisles with lineups of potted flowers or pretty piles of colorful flower petals on either side of the aisle. Or, they choose to create a ‘petal carpet’ of scattered flower petals in all-white or colors that creates their path.

• Some of our recent brides and grooms have decided that they prefer to walk not on an aisle runner nor on flower petals, but on our flooring or garden grass to provide a lovely color contrast of the bride’s white gown against their hues.

We’ve encouraged our wedding couples to have their wedding photographers snap photos of their aisle runner design and details as a priceless keepsake, and we’ve seen our brides and grooms pose photos while standing in front of their runner logo. A popular trend is for the couple to either clean and store their aisle runner to use in the future for their milestone anniversaries or when they renew their wedding vows. At those celebrations, which they may choose to host here with us once again, they can use their wedding day aisle runner as a valuable and sentimental part of their décor. And of course, many of our New Jersey wedding couples choose instead to cut out their aisle runner logo and design, have it professionally framed, and display it in their homes as an everyday reminder of the best and most beautiful day of their lives.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Attending a bridal show is a smart way for brides and grooms to explore the styles and trends of wedding décor, fashion, favors, photography and more, since nothing beats the in-person opportunities you’ll find at bridal expos like the elegant ones occurring in our local New Jersey area. Just like you can only fully appreciate our wedding gardens and wedding rooms by walking through them, seeing the details all throughout our wedding venues, you can best appreciate the beauty of a floral arrangement by standing right in front of it, inhaling its fragrance, seeing the breathtaking layers of delicate petals on each gardenia, rose and ranunculus. That’s far better than looking at even the most beautiful of photos on a website.

To help you get the most from your bridal show experiences, we’ve listed the Top Do’s and Don’ts for bridal expos:

Do:

• Plan to attend several different bridal shows and expos, to meet a wide range of local New Jersey wedding vendors and see a wide range of design ideas.

• Plan to attend your first bridal show with your groom, sharing your first-time excitement with him. Many of our New Jersey wedding couples are full planning partners, with the grooms just as interested in the catering, entertainment, photos and décor as the brides. They want to share this first bridal show event excitement with their brides as well.

• Bring your closest women with you to subsequent bridal shows. Moms now join the maid of honor and bridesmaids on a bride’s guest list, sharing the exciting scene and discovering fabulous wedding details and experts alongside the brides.

• Sign on to win prizes. The bridal show coordinators share your e-mail address with displaying vendors anyway, so sign onto their sheets and you may win valuable prizes.

• Talk to the wedding vendors. They welcome your planning questions, and they’re quite willing to share ideas or make suggestions about details you might not think about, such as providing a water source for hydrangeas to help them last longer through your wedding day.

Don’t:

• Don’t rush in, rush past vendor tables, grab some appetizers and a glass of champagne, take a glance around, and leave. Great bridal shows have fabulous events planned throughout the show, including band performances, fashion shows, seminars by local wedding experts, prize drawings, and games through which you might win a valuable prize for your wedding or honeymoon.

• Don’t assume that only beginning wedding vendors attend wedding shows. Top wedding professionals – including the most successful, busiest and most admired NJ wedding experts — make it a high priority to attend as many bridal shows as possible. They want to meet brides and grooms face-to-face, show their talents and offerings, and connect with wedding couples who are looking for their style of top-caliber wedding services.

• Don’t forget to take your camera with you. You’ll see hundreds of designs and details that will help you create your wedding details.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Today’s brides and grooms start thinking about their wedding registries right away, and they’re very excited (and quite fortunate!) that current wedding registry trends and etiquette say they can have more than one registry. In fact, both nationwide and in our local New Jersey region, the average number of separate wedding registries set up by brides and grooms is two to three.

Many wedding couples choose to create registry gift lists at one or more housewares stores such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Macys, and Williams Sonoma, just to name a few, to stock up on kitchen and linen essentials, décor items, appliances such as top-tier coffee makers and Panini presses. They register at home essentials stores to upgrade to the good cookware and cutlery, and load up on high thread-count towels and sheets. For many couples, this type of registry is their wedding registry number one. They then create other, unique registries. Here are some of the top types of unique wedding registries that our Passaic County, Morris County, Essex County, Hudson County, Somerset County and other New Jersey wedding couples report as their top wedding gift list choices:

• Honeymoon Registry: These popular wedding gift registry sites allow you to sign up for such romantic experiences as a private sunset dinner cruise or a couple’s massage on the beach, or an adventure such as swimming with dolphins or taking a zipline canopy tour above an exotic rainforest. Guests can purchase these experiences for you, or they might choose to give you a ‘share’ of your honeymoon suite booking, or your plane fare, to make your trip possible for you. They can also select gift cards to your honeymoon resort, giving you the ability to spend your gift money any way you wish.

• Charitable Registry: If you’re a charitable-minded couple, you might set up a charitable gift registry on which you designate your favorite charity or charities, and guests select the amount they’d like to donate to your chosen cause as their wedding gift to you. A big trend among our New Jersey wedding couples is designating local donation recipients, such as animal shelters, libraries, schools and especially food pantries. Having a charitable registry among your two or three established wedding registries gives guests their choice of traditional or unique gift to give you.

• Sporting Registry. Our local North Jersey brides and grooms have a penchant for outdoor sports, and living an active lifestyle. So they’re signing onto active and adventure lifestyle gift lists at such stores as REI.com, one of the most popular registries for couples who want mountain bikes, kayaks, camping gear, GPS systems and other supplies to enhance their active lifestyle that’s so popular here at New Jersey’s many hiking, biking, climbing, boating and other adventure sport areas.

• Wine Registry. Our New Jersey brides and grooms have sophisticated tastes when it comes to wines, and one of the things we hear quite often from couples who come to our West Orange wedding venue is that they dream of having extensive wine collections and installing wine cellars. So creating a wine registry at a local wine merchant or wine connoisseur website is a top trend.

• Experience Registry. Similar to the honeymoon registry, this type of registry offers experiences as gifts. The bride and groom log onto an experience wedding registry site, and they choose their dream adventures. It might be skydiving, horseback riding on the beach, taking a culinary course at a celebrity chef’s establishment, or other phenomenal experience that only a guest’s generous gift could provide.

Wedding registry information must not be included on your wedding invitation, but is instead shared as links in your personal wedding website. Wedding guests say they appreciate finding multiple types of registries that give them a wide range of options for your wedding gift, since they want to get you an unforgettable gift or experience that you’ll love.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Your sisters, friends and cousins will certainly be thrilled to hear you say, “Will you be my bridesmaid?” It’s a very big moment for the ladies who are asked, since being invited into a bridal party circle is a great honor, a sign of great admiration, one of the biggest thrills that you can share with each other.

In today’s world of wedding planning, especially in our northern New Jersey region and in the surrounding counties of our tri-state area, brides are taking extra steps to make this invitation even more special to their future bridesmaids. Here are some of the creative ways that brides are planning unique ways to ask, “Will you be my bridesmaid?”

• Send your bridesmaids flowers at their homes or offices, with a hand-written note from you (if possible, since long-distance flower-sends will produce computer-printed notes) asking the big question.
• Send your bridesmaids chocolate-covered strawberries or chocolates from one of our award-winning NJ chocolatiers, with a note inviting the bridesmaid to make the bridal party a sweeter circle of friends with her involvement.
• Send a voice-recording greeting card, especially to a far-away friend, so that she can receive an indulgent gift and your voice-added greeting card inviting her to the bridal party circle…and serves as a keepsake of your relationship and this big moment.
• Send your bridesmaid a stuffed bear, outfitted to look like a bridesmaid, with a hidden voice player that you’ve used to record your invitation message.
• Schedule a Skype meeting with your friend so that you can ask her in a high-tech way.
• Buy each of your ladies a bridesmaid guidebook or a New Jersey wedding magazine and send them to your bridesmaids with a personal note from you, inviting them into your bridal party group.
• Invite your bridesmaids to a VIP dinner party, cocktail party, a fine dining restaurant or your favorite gourmet cuisine spot, or simply out for cocktails at your favorite cocktail bar or family restaurant as a celebratory get-together where you ask the big question, then clink cocktail glasses for the first time as bride and her bridesmaids.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Upon the occasion of your engagement – whether it happened yesterday or months ago – you’re likely planning to schedule an engagement portrait session with a professional photographer as the first of your many, exciting, upcoming wedding photography tasks.

In the past, engagement portraits looked very similar – with the bride standing behind the seated groom, her arms wrapped around his shoulders and chest, with her new and sparkling engagement ring prominently showing on her left hand. Now, this traditional pose is just one of a collection of new engagement portrait poses that lead the way in first-couple-photo trends. Think of the beautiful engagement photo recently released by royal wedding couple Kate Middleton and Prince William. Kate and William posed in a near embrace, showing their closeness and natural affection as a couple, and yes the engagement ring was prominently-featured.

As a leading New Jersey wedding venue and top garden wedding location in New Jersey, we can attest to the natural beauty of our surrounding region here in the northern part of the Garden State where we have so many scenic overlooks – including the Highlawn Pavilion’s view of New York City – and natural vistas such as springtime blooms and the fiery colors of the autumn leaves. With engagement portraits experiencing a wedding photo trend evolution into using more nature scenes as backgrounds for these couple photos, our local wedding couples are quite lucky to have access to beautiful botanical gardens, estate homes, and especially beaches on our many shore and lake destinations here in New Jersey.

Here are some of the top engagement portrait setting styles that New Jersey wedding couples and our many New York City wedding couples choose for their signature couple photo:

At the Beach

• Sitting or lying directly on the sand
• Sitting or lying on a colorful beach blanket
• Splashing ankle-deep in the ocean’s edge water
• Groom carrying bride into the water, or along the ocean’s edge into the sunset
• Bride and groom sitting in a lifeguard stand
• A favorite of our New Jersey wedding couples – photos located at the family shore house where they’ve spent many summers, and perhaps where they became engaged
• At the precise spot on the beach where the couple became engaged.
• A natural, just-walking-along shot of the couple by the water’s edge

On the Boardwalk

For playful couples, a beach-setting engagement portrait session may include a quick stop at the boardwalk, where they may pose:

• On a carousel
• In the seat of their favorite ride
• Holding colorful cotton candy while overlooking the ocean
• Holding enormous stuffed animals the groom and bride have won for each other.

In the Park

The park may be easier for you to reach, and many New Jersey couples choose their nearby park setting, or a favorite spot in a state park overlooking a waterfall or a brook, as their engagement portrait setting. When couples look for places to take NJ wedding photos, it’s often the park that provides the setting closest to a gorgeous garden wedding’s feel. Here are some of the top trends in park photos:

• At a gazebo
• On a park bench
• By a fountain
• On a wooden bridge crossing over a stream
• On a playground’s swingset
• Lying on the grass in the middle of a softball field where you’ve played or watched games together
• Kissing in the end zone of a park football field, where you may have had childhood sports memories

The goal is to design an engagement portrait that will join your spectacular professionally-taken wedding photos in your home displays for all time. Your wedding photography expert will guide you in suggesting poses that make you both look your best, but it’s up to you to choose your stunning location, bring several different styles of outfits or dresses to your photo session, and speak up when a setting or pose is what you want.

Many of our New Jersey wedding couples say they fall in love with several of their engagement photos, framing those for home display and using those for their personal wedding website and wedding program designs.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

A bride may dream most often and most vocally about her wedding gown, but it’s the design of her bridal bouquet that puts that perfect finishing touch on her wedding day look. The trends in wedding flowers change often, with bouquets growing larger then shrinking again into tightly-packed masterpieces filled with roses and stephanotis, and our New Jersey brides’ bouquets are now especially accessorized with sparkle and glamour and diamond pins.

We’ve collected the latest trends in bride’s bouquet designs, to help you create your ideal wedding flowers look, and complete your dream wedding day ensemble:

Bouquet Styles: Ninety-five percent of today’s wedding bouquets are hand-tied designs, in which the flowers are gathered together by hand in a symmetrical, round design, then the stems are wrapped first with securing floral tape, then wrapped again with wide, satin ribbon. This style provides for both formal and informal wedding looks as the most modern and stylish of today’s brides’ bouquet selections.

Bouquet Colors: Vibrant colors are in, with our New Jersey brides looking to the recent Pantone Color Report for wedding hues to adhere to the current hot shades of coral, turquoise, yellow, bright red, fuchsia, and purple. Bright, vibrant wedding bouquets may be monochromatic – such as an all-red bouquet — or they may be mixes of bright colors and a lighter shade of that same color. Still popular among many of our brides is the all-white bridal bouquet, perhaps with subtle touches of light pink or sage green flowers to add just a bit of dimension in the bouquet.

Here are some of the top bouquet color combinations expected as the hot shades of spring and summer this year:

• Red and orange

• Coral and yellow

• Yellow and sage green

• Purple and lilac

• Blue and purple

Bouquet Flowers: The top bride’s bouquet flowers include the top overall wedding flowers in the New Jersey wedding realm, with roses continuing to be the most popular at elegant weddings. Our brides love exotic wedding flowers in their wedding décor as well as in their bouquets, so we’re seeing more orchids and gardenias in floral pieces carried by our brides. And for both formal and informal garden weddings, the bride’s bouquet includes lilies, peonies, tulips, hydrangeas, and stephanotis.

Bouquet Accents: As mentioned, our local New Jersey brides bring their sense of sophisticated style into their bridal bouquets as well as to their wedding gowns, accenting their bouquets – within the blooms and on the wrapped handle — with crystal pins, jewel pins, rhinestone picks, pearl pins, and even true diamond brooches or pins that may be gifts from the groom or their parents, or may be an heirloom jewelry pieces handed down to her by a beloved relative or her new in-laws. Our brides are also incorporating into their wedding floral décor and bridal bouquets tiny accent touches that convey their wedding theme: seashells or butterflies or feathers are seen most often lately here at our West Orange wedding venue. And many of our brides add a touch of good luck to their bouquets by pinning on saint medallions or inserting a lucky penny into them.

With so much design thought and value placed on the bridal bouquet, it’s rarely this floral piece that is presented to a special female relative, or thrown to the awaiting single ladies. Most of our brides have at the ready a separate, small bouquet or nosegay featuring bright, fresh flowers that is used for this wedding celebration ritual.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Your wedding rehearsal brings the focus to the most important part of your wedding day: your wedding ceremony. You and each of your ceremony participants will embark upon a detailed run-through of your ceremony elements, led with experience and efficiency by your wedding planner, your wedding officiant, or our banquet manager for your garden wedding or ballroom wedding here at our West Orange, New Jersey wedding venue.

I say efficiency because it’s a hallmark of today’s wedding rehearsal — especially for our time-conscious New Jersey, New York City and Long Island wedding couples – for the rehearsal to run smoothly and quickly, instructing all and putting everyone at ease about the elements of the wedding ceremony. So to that end, and to help you plan a quick, efficient, and enjoyable wedding rehearsal, here is your primer on what should be practiced at your rehearsal, and what may be skipped for time, and also for that all-important surprise factor on the wedding day:

What’s Practiced:

• Where the ladies and the men will each gather and await the start of the ceremony.
• Ushers escorting guests to their seats, including a familiarization with the path of our wedding gardens and the layout of our wedding ceremony room.
• The lineups for the bridesmaids and the groomsmen, including how they will walk, stand and pair up in duos or trios for the recessional.
• The processional walking spacing and walking speed for all.
• Special instructions for child attendants, teaching them how and where to walk.
• The wedding ceremony elements:

• The officiant will confirm how the bride wishes for her parent or parents to give their consent, if she wishes to include the ‘giving away’ portion of the wedding ceremony. We’ve found moments like these to be enlightening ones for the bride and groom, places where the wedding rehearsal allows them to tailor the nuances of their ceremony wording.
• The steps of the religious, spiritual or secular wedding ceremony, including the bride’s and groom’s moving to another location for a ritual, plus the maid of honor’s necessary arranging of the bride’s train.
• The readings, giving participants the chance to run through the wording, and also learn from the banquet manager or officiant which podium or microphone to approach.
• The presentation of religious, spiritual or cultural elements.
• The wedding vows (optional – some couples wish to run through classic or traditional vows, and some wish to keep them a surprise until the wedding day.)
• The exchange of rings, acted out, without the actual rings.
• The kiss.
• The presentation of the bride and groom to all in attendance as a married couple.

• The recessional, including how the bride and groom will walk back down the aisle together, bridal party members’ walking in the processional, and the process by which groomsmen will return to the front row to indicate parents’ turn in the recessional.
• The receiving line order, if the couple wishes to have a receiving line at this point.

What’s Not Practiced:

Again, at their wedding rehearsal, many of our local brides and grooms appreciate speeding things along, so that no one gets restless, and so that they can get to the fine restaurant dining experience of their rehearsal dinner on time. So these are the elements that are most often not practiced at the rehearsal:

• The officiant performing the entirety of readings to be used in the ceremony.
• The entirety of wedding vows. A trend we’re seeing in wedding rehearsals here at our West Orange, New Jersey wedding venue is couples practicing the traditional beginning of their wedding vows – “to have and to hold, etc.” – but keeping their personalized ending sections private for now, as a surprise to their intended, as well as to all present.
• Religious elements, such as the receiving of Mass.
• Musical performances, or cultural performances.
• The bride and groom’s departure to the wedding limousine.

Trust in the experience of our banquet manager or your special events expert as your group enacts the steps at your wedding rehearsal and you’ll find that you have a greater sense of comfort about your wedding day, fewer nerves distracting you, and a wonderful ability to take in all of the beautiful details and meaningful elements of your New Jersey wedding.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château