So much planning goes into the wedding day, from the guest list to the decorations to the timeline, many couples overlook planning for the day before the wedding. It’s also an important day to consider! You want to put thought into what happens leading up to the wedding so that you can avoid any added stress and make the most of your wedding weekend with friends and family. A lot of wedding professionals advise to allow enough time and preparation for the day of the wedding to be able to go through the day at a relaxed pace, and you want to do that for the day before the wedding as well. So what should you expect for the day before the wedding?
Rehearsal:
Your ceremony rehearsal at Castle Farms will be scheduled 2 months prior to your wedding. The rehearsal is always scheduled for the day before the wedding, unless you have another request, and the time depends on our event schedule. While there are many activities you can plan to do around the rehearsal, such as a round of golf or a trip to the nail salon, we’ll give a few suggestions on how to work out the logistics depending on what time your rehearsal is scheduled for.
Most often, your wedding party attendants will be arriving to Charlevoix the day before the wedding and will need to check into their hotel room. Typical hotel check in times are between 2pm and 4pm. If your rehearsal is scheduled earlier in the day, such as 12pm or 1pm, you and your attendants can come run through rehearsal prior to checking into hotels. Rehearsals last about 45 minutes, so once rehearsal is finished everyone can get checked into their hotels and unpack for the weekend. Since you’ll have the afternoon to fill prior to a rehearsal dinner, you could plan an activity for the wedding party to do together, or everyone can take some time to check out what downtown Charlevoix has to offer – boutique shops, picturesque beaches, and neat eateries. Either way, it’ll give everyone plenty of time to get dressed up and ready for rehearsal dinner. If a later rehearsal is scheduled, such as 3pm or 4pm, you can swap the order of your day. Use the morning and afternoon for activities or relaxing around town. After getting ready and heading to Castle Farms for rehearsal, go for a pre-dinner activity or cocktail, and then right into rehearsal dinner.
Check out Charlevoix online to see all of the activities available to make the most of your wedding weekend up north.
Venue Decorating and Wedding Preparations:
Any DIY projects or decorations that need to be acquired should be finished well before the day before the wedding, if possible. It’s an added stress to an already busy weekend to be finishing last minute projects for the big day. If you do have items that could not be assembled beforehand, such as favors including food items, recruit your wedding party team to help! Many hands make light work.
Your reception space at Castle Farms is available to decorate starting at 10am on your wedding day. If there is not an event reserved the day before, which we confirm when we are 2 months out from your wedding day, we allow you to decorate the day before the wedding. If this option is available to you, you will want to factor some decorating time into your plans for the day. Since you’ll have rehearsal and rehearsal dinner to work around, decorating could work best in the morning before other activities, or later in the afternoon after any morning plans. With a later rehearsal time, it works well to plan morning activities, then decorate in the early afternoon and go right into rehearsal. With an earlier rehearsal, use the morning to decorate, then after rehearsal continue on with any activities before dinner.
The day before the wedding is all about what works for you! While we listed suggestions for timeline planning and order of events, it is up to you and what you have planned, and if you find another order works well, that’s great! Our main piece of advice: treat the entire weekend like the wedding day – allow enough time to relax, soak up the moments, cherish your time with everyone and have fun.