reception planning

First Dance

Your first dance will be one of the most romantic and memorable moments of your wedding reception. To ensure that you both look natural, comfortable and impressive during your spin on the dance floor, it’s a smart idea to take dance lessons.

A great many of our New Jersey brides and grooms are so inspired by television shows like Dancing With The Stars and fun first dance wedding videos on YouTube that they’re hiring first dance choreographers to help them create their first dance. Why hire a dance pro? An expert dance instructor – we have many near our Northern New Jersey location — can assess your and your groom’s natural dancing ability and comfort level, and choose steps, spins and dips that suit your skills. And you get to say if you’re not confident in a move, which will lead your choreographer to make an adjustment. You can’t get that type of customization from a DVD or online dance video. You’ll often attend three to four dance lessons at a dance studio, either privately or in a group wedding dance class, in order to perfect your wedding’s first dance with grace and style.

A rising wedding first dance trend is foregoing the swaying slow dance in favor of a more exciting dance such as the rumba or the tango, the cha cha cha or a faster dance with club choreography. Wedding guests cheer when your music begins and you wow the crowd with your moves, and your beaming smile as you perform them. It’s far better than just swaying back and forth to a slow song, ‘like at the 7^th grade dance,’ say many of our happy wedding couples.

Other First Dances

 One wedding trend we like very much is when brides and their fathers, and grooms and their mothers, take a dance lesson or two to choreograph the Father-Daughter dance and the Mother-Son dance. This way, when “Fly Me to the Moon” begins, you and your father can ‘show everyone how it’s done,’ says one of our recent wedding couples.

Avoid that ‘we didn’t prepare for this’ awkwardness that occurs when a groom and his mom chose a song to dance to, but never gave any thought to how they would dance to it. With a choreographed first dance, everyone feels more confident and comfortable, which makes the dance more fun to perform, and to watch….especially again and again, as captured on the wedding video.

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Chateau

Wedding cake trends change swiftly and beautifully….just like wedding dress trends. From elegant simplicity to wild and whimsical colors, today’s wedding cake captures the personalities of the bride and groom, suits the season, fits the formality and delights wedding guests as a centerpiece of the reception ballroom décorand eventually as a delectable highlight of the dessert hour.

Wedding Cakes

Here are the top trends for wedding cakes in 2012:

Height: Wedding cakes are getting taller in 2012, not just with the number of tiers but rather with the height of each tier in the creation of an elevated cake.

Flavors: In 2011 weddings, red velvet cake was all the rage, and now that trend is fading out in 2012, in favor of exotic flavors such as pomegranate, blackberry blueberry, fig, orange chocolate, and blends of creamy textures with exotic fruits. One top flavor composition is a moist cake with a fruit filling, such as white chiffon with blackberry mousse or banana cake with crème brulee filling or chocolate wedding cake with white chocolate mousse and raspberry filling. In addition to fruit-filled cake, we’re also seeing carrot cake with cream cheese filling holding on as a favorite of our brides and grooms.

Invitation-Inspired: Wedding cakes of 2011 were very much designed to look like wedding couture, with layers and folds of fondant to look like wedding dress fabric, and sparkling accents to mimic the crystals or rhinestones on the bride’s dress. Now, cakes are taking their inspiration from the wedding invitation, namely the layers of textured paper, vellums, fabrics, pearlized borders and the colors the bride and groom have chosen in their wedding invitation design.

Colors: Wedding cakes are returning to all-white for a pristine, elegant simplicity that is hand-painted and hand-accented by top NJ cake designers with all-white designs, vibrant color cut-outs of fondant or sugar paste, or the new hot color combination for 2012 wedding cakes: black and white.

Going Royal: The royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton put everything regal back on the map for wedding trends in 2012. Opulent designs with lots of piped white icing rosettes, ‘drapes,’ and painstaking lacy details give a sophisticated edge to a royal wedding cake look, whether it’s a modern-day royal wedding design or a lacey, finely-detailed wedding cake from Marie Antoinette’s era. The effect is refined, detailed and princess-like.

Simplicity. A wedding cake frosted in smooth layers, looking like wrapped boxes and very minimally accented with cut-out sugar paste or piped-on icing pearls is a very big wedding cake trend for 2012. Budget weddings often call for less ornate wedding details, but this style of wedding cake looks more expensive than it is. In a single, solid color, this cake wows wedding guests for being a stunningly simple work of art.

Artistic: A number of New Jersey and New York wedding couples choose a wedding cake design filled with colorful, vibrant accents, swirls, sugar paste cutouts, in a whimsical and artistic flair. These complex, geometric cakes are eye-catching and unforgettable, the perfect end to a fine dining experience.

Nature-inspired: As a stylistic evolution of the green wedding, or eco-friendly wedding with an emphasis on nature, it’s become a trend for wedding cakes to show off more flowers, even sugar-paste leaves and actual branches. The colors of nature-inspired cakes are most often white, off-white or a muted golden shade to show off the pastel florals, and we’ve also seen some robin’s egg blue cakes in the wedding reception dessert roundup.

Flower accents: Whether they’re real or fashioned from fondant, sugar paste or marzipan, flowers remain a popular wedding cake accent. In 2012, wedding cakes will be decorated with more magnolias, peonies, tulips, ranunculus and especially blue orchids, while last year’s roses and daisies fade back a bit.

Cake Stand Design: Many creative brides and grooms plan lovely presentations for their wedding cakes, displaying them in their wedding reception venue with elevated stands or colorful blocks, even wood platforms and ornate pedestals displaying their cakes.

Wedding Cake Bars: Why choose just one wedding cake? A big trend for 2012 is to select one main wedding cake design for your cake-cutting ritual at your wedding reception, and then place that cake on a buffet table filled with an array of different, smaller wedding cakes in coordinating colors, but different flavors and fillings. Also on the cake bar: chocolate truffles, chocolate dipped strawberries, and other delectable desserts. Our finest NJ pastry chefs offer an array of top-trend wedding desserts that put the perfect finishing touch on your spectacular wedding reception.

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Chateau

Outdoor Wedding Ceremony

Outdoor wedding ceremonies are so romantic, and many of our brides and grooms say that among their top wedding ideas is having an outdoor ceremony so that they and their wedding guests can enjoy a beautifully-bloomed garden wedding venue as they take their vows.

We’ve hosted thousands of outdoor weddings here at our Northern New Jersey wedding venue, and we offer you the top tips for planning a spectacular outdoor wedding ceremony:

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Chateau

During your wedding rehearsal, you and everyone involved in your wedding ceremony will learn all of the important details central to the beauty and perfection of this most important part of your wedding day. You’ll arrange your bridal party members’ lineup, practice the processional, practice your vows and the symbolic or cultural elements of your ceremony, and make any last-minute changes you desire.

In years past, the wedding rehearsal was in the hands of the officiant who was in charge at the house of worship, or a wedding coordinator stepped in to run the practice session. Now, we’re seeing a fresh, new trend of a team effort encompassing the guidance of several authorities at the rehearsal. Our New Jersey wedding couples enjoy the input from specialists in each portion and style element of the ceremony.

The wedding coordinator handles the bridal party lineup and partner pairings, helps the child attendants learn how to walk down the aisle and where to stand, and instructs any musicians, readers, cultural performers and other players in the wedding ceremony. With a practiced hand and a level of authority that the excited circle of friends and family members listen to with great respect, the wedding coordinator also keeps you on an efficient schedule, so that you can get to your rehearsal dinner on time, with all crucial instructions received.

If you do not have a wedding coordinator working on your wedding, our banquet managers can happily step in to guide your group through every step of your ceremony held on our wedding garden grounds or in one of our ballrooms, and we too will keep you on schedule.

The officiant is another important member of your wedding rehearsal team, leading you through the spoken elements of your ceremony, providing calming guidance and often a sense of humor that puts everyone at ease.

And of course, you are also a member of the rehearsal dinner team, as the highest authority in the creation of your wedding ceremony. You can ask questions, request modifications, and let the officiant know if you have something already printed in your wedding program – such as a particular reading — that needs to be added into the ceremony.

Our wedding couples from Passaic County, Morris County, Somerset County and all other state-wide regions, plus our growing number of New York City and Long Island brides and grooms, actively co-create their wedding ceremonies, finalizing their plans during their all-important wedding rehearsal, and they can then enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that all of the plans are set, and all of the participants know what to do. All that’s left to do is relax, enjoy the evening, and know that your wedding planning team, especially including our dedicated banquet directors, will protect your plans and run everything wonderfully on your wedding day.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

Share the excitement of your upcoming wedding by sending out stylish Save the Date cards to your wedding guests. These colorful wedding stationery Musts have evolved in beautiful design over the past few years, and we have the top new trends in Save the Date style — chosen from national trends as well as from the designs shared with us by our local New Jersey wedding couples from West Orange, Morristown, Short Hills, Princeton, Madison, Chatham and many additional regions:

1. Save the Date postcards are all the rage, with couples ordering or making their own oversized postcards featuring a photo of the moment when the groom popped the question. Guests love sharing that extra-special moment, and brides and grooms now count this as their #1 graphic for their Save the Date cards.

1. Borrowing from wedding invitation style, another top trend in Save the Date card design is choosing a single-panel printed card, as a budget-friendly yet stylish and elegant format.

1. Include your personal wedding website URL at the bottom of the Save the Date card, so that guests can easily find your wedding’s full information, including hotel room block details and where your bridal registries are.

1. Include your full names. With so many weddings taking place in your circle of friends and family, guests don’t want to have to guess which Sarah and James you are. So last name inclusion is a Must.

1. Include the wedding location, so that guests know immediately if travel and lodging will be required. It’s enough to simply put ‘West Orange, New Jersey’ on the Save the Date if your card doesn’t allow room for additional locale information.

1. Bright colors are In, with our New Jersey wedding couples following the hottest wedding trends of going vibrant as opposed to pastel or all-bridal-white. The top wedding colors for Save the Dates are blue, purple, orange, bright pink and summery coral.

1. Design stylish borders to give your Save the Date cards the look of a frame. You might choose a single or double border line, or go more graphic with 1/8-inch filled-in, colorful lines surrounding your card.

1. Add a romantic quote. Check www.quotesgarden.com to find the perfect classic romance quote that you both love, and that conveys the sense of your wedding-to-come. We’re seeing more of our Morris County, Essex County, Passaic County and other New Jersey couples adding quotes about gardens and flowers to convey their garden wedding theme.

1. Use green wedding-friendly card stock such as recycled papers and earth-friendly soy inks to make your invitations, or order your Save the Dates from the top green wedding stationery websites.

10.  Save the Date magnets are still a hot trend, with couples designing brightly-colored magnets that guests will be able to use on their refrigerators because they love the pretty design of it.

Send out your Save the Date cards or magnets as far in advance as possible, ideally more than six months before the wedding, so that guests can make their travel and lodging plans as early as possible, not just saving the date but saving money as well!

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

When a wedding celebration lasts long into the late-night hours, our recent New Jersey brides and grooms love to serve their guests an unexpected additional wave of wedding menu items during the last hour of their reception. In the past year, the trend of ‘late-night bites’ has increased dramatically, as a growing number of New Jersey, New York Metropolitan and Long Island brides and grooms experience post-midnight food service at company parties, fundraising galas, and even university formals. Further inspired by shows like Top Chef and upscale wedding reality shows, local brides speak to our illustrious banquet managers and chefs about creating a gourmet, late-night menu that’s served in style.

Here are the top two categories of late-night wedding menu features, as well as some of the foods most often requested by our local tri-state area wedding couples:

Late-Night Snack Bites:

• Hamburger and cheeseburger sliders, with gourmet toppings such as artisan cheeses or marinated onions and peppers
• French fries and onion rings, dusted with gourmet spices and served in ceramic bowls or fair-inspired paper cones
• Mini pizzas, again given the gourmet treatment such as spiced sausage topping and five types of cheeses on top
• Empanadas filled with pork, beef or chicken
• Tacos filled with pork, beef, chicken, beans, fish and rice or vegetables, with gourmet salsa
• Soft pretzels, served with gourmet dipping mustards
• Funnel cakes or zeppole, a New Jersey-favorite snack bite, especially when made with a flavored sugar sprinkling.

For brides and grooms who wish to end their receptions with sweets rather than snack bites, we offer you the top trends in surprise second dessert offerings:

Delectable Desserts

• A second slice of wedding cake, which many of our New Jersey wedding guests say is their top wedding wish…one slice is just not enough.
• The groom’s cake may be presented at this time, as a twist to the tradition presentation alongside the wedding cake, designed in a theme, shape and flavors of the groom’s choosing.
• Chocolate-covered strawberries, bananas, raspberries, cantaloupe and pineapple half-moons, pound cake squares and other dessert tastes, already dipped in a variety of chocolate sauces and paired with fresh whipped cream and berry sauces.
• Tiramisu squares, for a touch of alcohol-tinged sweetness and perhaps the bride and groom’s favorite dessert incorporated into their wedding menu.
• A gelato bar, also a favorite of our New Jersey brides and grooms who wish for a different, richer taste at the end of their wedding reception, with their favorite flavors featured.
• Cake pops and cupcakes are also top trends in wedding menu desserts that our pastry chefs have arranged for our wedding receptions, with a wide variety in classic, creative and even cocktail-inspired flavors.

The key to these late-night wedding menus is formal, detailed presentations, with each slider plated with great care, chocolate-covered berries arranged in artistic designs, dipping sauces presented in modern ceramic bowls, and more. Even with so-called ‘bar food’ bites, we elevate each wedding menu option to its most attractive and most impressive presentation, all to impress your guests and make your night unforgettable from the first to the very last bite.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

A wedding’s cocktail party stations allow the bride and groom to showcase a generous variety of their favorite gourmet cuisines, from European cuisine to Asian cuisine, Italian gourmet cuisine, new American cuisine, Middle Eastern cuisine, and more. As our culture grows more interested in the culinary arts, and as our New Jersey wedding clients come to us with truly thrilling ideas and requests for eclectic, elegant dining paired with fine wines and elite vintage champagnes, we at the Pleasantdale Chateau – as well as at our sister wedding venues The The Manor, The Highlawn Pavilion and theRam’s Head Inn – relish the chance to co-create a stunning lineup of the top trends in cocktail party station fare.

Our chef Robert Albers has created an extensive menu of delicious dishes within the new trends in station themes, and our brides and grooms choose from among them to customize their event’s culinary experience. Here are the top trends in cocktail party stations to consider for your wedding menu:

• The Fresh Garden Crudités Station – During the past few years, wedding guests have grown increasingly fond of the fresh, crisp vegetable platter, opting for organic, healthier treats within the collection of cocktail party menu options. A crudités station offers elaborately-presented pieces of broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, red and yellow bell pepper, carrot sticks, celery stalks, zucchini sticks, sun-dried tomatoes and a creamy Parmesan dipping sauce.
• Fresh Fruits and Berries Station – Also a popular choice among wedding guests, as well as brides and grooms planning green weddings here in New Jersey, this station features an array of fresh, sliced seasonal fruits and berries such as golden pineapple, watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, seedless red grapes and strawberries. Guests who must eat in a healthy manner now find themselves delighted at a wedding, not frustrated by an array of fried options.
• Imported and Domestic Cheese Station – In the world of wedding cuisine – as well as gourmet dining influenced by European cuisine as well as the tastes of our domestic heartland and New Jersey farms’ fresh offerings – cheeses are the new It food on wedding menus. If a couple doesn’t have a cheese station planned, they ask for a cheese course within their reception menu. Some of the most popular cheeses featured on our cheese station include aged Gouda, Coupole goat cheese, herbed Swiss, Vermont white cheddar, Brie, Camembert, Farme D’Ambert and Gourmandises, served with seeded flatbreads and chutney.
• Normandy Display Station – A Normandy display station brings a variety of international cuisine to a wedding menu, offering hummus, baba ghanoush and cucumber yogurt dip, charcuterie platter of sliced ham and dried sausages, pencil asparagus with hearts of palm, toasted Israeli couscous with golden raisins and pine nuts, and more. Our wedding couples from Morris County, Passaic County, Somerset County, Hudson County and surrounding regions of New Jersey and Metropolitan New York City have dined in some of the finest restaurants in the world, and they’re quite particular about offering some of the finest cuisines from around the world.
• In a cocktail party menu trend that surprises some wedding couples, fondue is back as a hot trend, with the fondue style being a cheese and ale-based fondue, served with vegetables and apples, spicy sausages and assorted breads.
• Even with a meat-based entrée planned for the reception menu, our brides and grooms often wish to include a carving station. The top trends in carving stations right now include unique types of meats, looking beyond the classic prime rib or pork loin to sushi grade ahi tuna, apple and ancho braised brisket of beef and more. When guests are treated to a unique cocktail party station menu item, they’re all the more impressed with your lavish gourmet wedding celebration.
• Seafood stations remain at the top of brides’ and grooms’ wishlists, with chilled oysters on the half shell, jumbo Gulf shrimp, snow crab claws and other iced seafoods presented to guests.
• Chafing dish menu items give wedding couples their choice of several gourmet cuisine items such as mussels, clams and shrimp in garlic and white wine over orzo, Osso Bucco, eggplant stuffed with ricotta, plum tomatoes and garlic sauce, country escargot with garlic and leeks, and an array of regional specialties, exotic dishes, cocktail party menu items chosen to please kosher menu requirements as well as vegan and other dietary requirements.
• The pasta station’s newest trend in the gourmet sauce our chefs prepare to make it stand out. Our New Jersey home to weddings specializes in Italian gourmet cuisine, and as such our chef’s pasta station sauces include classics like vodka sauce and pomodoro sauce, plus gourmet twists such as Italian sausage and pesto sauce, marscapone cheese and garlic cream, brandy mushroom sauce, seafood sauces, and the creamy, cheese top trend of wild mushroom and sage risotto, or Louisiana crawfish risotto, and more.
• A favorite station among our foodie wedding couples is the Asian station, including a sushi bar where attendants make hand rolls to order, or where guests can feast on chicken teriyaki dumplings or moo shoo duck hand rolls – again, unique dishes that guests may not order for their own dinners on the average visit to a local Asian restaurant.
• Additional cocktail party stations include: smoked fish displays including smoked salmon, gravlox, pastrami cured salmon and smoked trout and more; and a caviar station with several different top-grade caviars, blini, toast points and garnishes.

The cocktail party menu begins the celebration in fine style and with gourmet taste, delivering a new trend seen at weddings – people taking pictures of the cocktail party stations and hitting send to share the beauty and sumptuousness with their networks of friends and family far away. In our digital age, that’s quite a high compliment, among the many you’ll receive for your cocktail party menu collection.

Best,

Michael Mahle, Director of Communications, Pleasantdale Château

When brides design their bridesmaids’ bouquets, they follow the latest trends in coordinating these pretty wedding flower pieces with their own spotlight bride’s bouquets. Of course, the bride’s bouquet stands out above all with its size and the lushness of its florals, the sparkle of rhinestones or the shimmer of crystals accenting the bouquet. Most of our New Jersey brides want their own bouquets to shine, but they also want their bridesmaids’ bouquets to be lovely both in person and in their wedding photos and wedding video. They want their bridesmaids to love the flowers they’re carrying.

Another trend that carries into bridesmaid bouquet design is the use of those bouquets as wedding décor accents, perhaps surrounding the wedding cake, or placed as decorations by the guest book, tribute photos, on the family photo table and at other spots throughout the wedding venue. With a décor spotlight on bridesmaid bouquets, great care is taken to design these beautiful bouquets.

Here are the top bridesmaid bouquet design trends that we have seen here at the Pleasantdale Chateau and that local New Jersey special event planners and floral designers have reported as being the most often-requested wedding floral design ideas:

• The bridesmaids’ bouquets are a few inches smaller than the bride’s bouquet. Not dramatically smaller. Not half the size of the bride’s bouquet, but just a few inches smaller in diameter.
• The bridesmaids’ bouquet colors coordinate with the bride’s bouquet flower colors, with the bridesmaids’ flower colors featured in more pastel shades than the bride’s vibrant bouquet hues, or the bridesmaids’ vibrant bouquets being comprised of two bright colors – such as red and orange – while the bride simply carries an all-red bouquet.
• The maid of honor’s bouquet is most often designed to stand out from the bridesmaids’ flowers, often including a greater number of brightly-colored flowers.
• The bridesmaids’ bouquets consist of mostly the same types of flowers that the bride has included in her own bouquet, but the bride gets a greater number of exotic or larger flowers in her bouquet.
• Bridesmaids’ bouquets are made in the same style as the bride’s bouquet, with the vast majority of our New Jersey brides from Short Hills, Mendham, Morristown, Far Hills, Franklin Lanes, Basking Ridge and other local regions choosing hand-tied bouquets for their bridesmaids. This is a return to a true bouquet style for bridesmaids, a welcome change from the budget-saving trend of having bridesmaids carry a single rose or a single calla lily. Many brides feel that a single bloom doesn’t fit with a lavishly-planted, floral garden wedding venue or a wedding ballroom decorated with large, dramatic floral arrangements. So bridesmaids’ bouquets have returned to a chic, modern hand-tied style.
• Bridesmaids’ bouquets are designed to include a touch of sparkle from crystal or rhinestone pin accents within the blooms or affixed to the handle.
• Brides are using unique leaves and tiny flower filler in their bridesmaids’ bouquets to provide a visually interesting look and also keep their floral design costs lower, giving them more of their wedding flower budget to devote to their own bouquets, centerpieces and wedding cake flowers.

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