Exercises: The Rehearsal

This chapter is almost entirely procedural, and the exercises are mostly documents. Write them properly — they are the artefacts you will actually use.

Difficulty guide: ⭐ Foundational (5–10 min) · ⭐⭐ Intermediate (10–20 min) · ⭐⭐⭐ Challenging (20–40 min) · ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Advanced (40+ min)

Part A: Conceptual Understanding ⭐

A.1. State the chapter's threshold concept, and say why "rehearsal" is a bad name.

A.2. Name the four jobs of a rehearsal with their time allocations. Which is the only one anybody expects?

A.3. Why is job 4 not a soft benefit? What does an anxious wedding party actually do?

A.4. Give the forty-five-minute script, block by block.

A.5. Name the six teaching techniques. Which is the strongest and why?

A.6. State the four tests. Which involves walking?

A.7. Describe the four-minute test and explain why it needs no equipment.

A.8. What is the reverse run, and what does it test that a walk-through does not?

A.9. Distinguish a running order from a cue. What are the two halves of every cue?

A.10. State the five assignment rules.

A.11. How much faster does a rehearsal processional walk than the real one, and what do you do about it?

A.12. Name six of the twelve common Friday discoveries. How many are communication failures?

Part B: Applied Analysis ⭐⭐

B.1. Write a rehearsal script. For a wedding you specify: a party of eight, three readings, two families meeting for the first time, and a 45-minute window. Block by block, with times.

B.2. Convert eight running-order lines into cues. Take any ceremony order and produce a cue for each participant — a thing to watch for and a thing to do — and name the counterpart cue for whoever triggers it.

B.3. Run the confirmation loop. For a wedding with eleven named participants, write the message you send at −2 weeks. Then list what you expect it to find.

B.4. Design the assignments. For a wedding needing: a photo wrangler · a ring-bearer · somebody minding a grandparent · somebody on the gate · somebody moving furniture at 8:40 · somebody running the break playlist. Assign them, check for conflicts, and write the script you say aloud.

B.5. Write two briefs. The wedding party brief and the parents' brief, for the same wedding. State what is on each and not the other, and why.

B.6. Handle four situations. Write what you say for: a rehearsal that will not start · a mother proposing a change at 5:47 · a participant in tears · a couple arguing.

B.7. Compare two documents. Take a ceremony order and a run sheet for the same wedding — real or constructed — and read them line by line against each other. Report every discrepancy.

B.8. Plan a Friday. For a wedding with floral conditioning from 2:00, a 5:30 rehearsal, a 6:30 dinner, and three people involved in all three. Find every collision and state what must be true for it to work.

Part C: Real-World Application ⭐⭐–⭐⭐⭐

C.1. Attend or run one. ⭐⭐⭐ If you can attend a real rehearsal, time each block and record every discovery. Compare to §24.5a's list of twelve.

C.2. Time a processional twice. ⭐⭐ With volunteers: once in ordinary clothes at ordinary pace, once slowly with somebody carrying something. Report the difference as a percentage and compare to the 20–40% claim.

C.3. Ask an officiant. ⭐⭐⭐ "What do you wish planners did at rehearsals?" and "what do you find that nobody was looking for?" Write 500 words.

C.4. Run the four-minute test. ⭐⭐ Outdoors, with two people speaking quietly 18 inches apart, and walk to 40 feet. Then do it with a breeze. Report.

C.5. Interview a wedding party member. ⭐⭐ Somebody who has been in one. Ask what they were told, what they were not, and what they were unsure about on the day. Report against §24.2a's brief.

C.6. Audit a group chat. ⭐⭐ If you can see one from a real wedding, assess whether somebody could find out where to be on Saturday morning without asking anybody.

Part D: Synthesis and Critical Thinking ⭐⭐⭐

D.1. Cross-chapter integration. Chapter 18's sound test, Chapter 20's processional, Chapter 21's tradition, and Chapter 23's photo matrix all resolve on a Friday evening. Build the one page a planner holds at a rehearsal, and say what happens if it is not held.

D.2. Critique the forty-five minutes. §24.3 caps a rehearsal at forty-five minutes. Argue that this is a planner optimising for their own evening — that a family with people who have travelled wants the time, that the walking is reassuring even if it teaches nothing, and that efficiency is not the point. Then respond.

D.3. The nine-of-twelve finding. §24.5a says nine of the twelve common discoveries are communication failures findable at −2 weeks. Argue that the rehearsal is therefore mostly redundant. Then respond, and say what it is genuinely irreplaceable for.

D.4. Assignments and consent. §24.7 assigns jobs publicly, in front of the group, so that ten people heard it. Argue that public assignment is a pressure technique that makes it hard for somebody to decline. Then respond, and design the version that gets the benefit without the coercion.

D.5. The rehearsal dinner. §24.8 says the planner's role is smaller than expected. Argue the opposite — that it is frequently the higher-stakes evening, that two families meeting matters more than a walk-through, and that a planner who leaves at seven has abandoned the harder job. Then respond.

D.6. Transfer. Compare a wedding rehearsal with a dress rehearsal in theatre, a pre-flight briefing, a surgical time-out, or a fire drill. Which is the closest analogue, and what does it have that weddings do not?

Part M: Mixed Practice (Interleaved) ⭐⭐–⭐⭐⭐

M.1. (Ch.18 + Ch.24) The four-minute test finds the couple inaudible from row three. It is Friday evening. Give three fixes, all free.

M.2. (Ch.20) A rehearsal processional runs 4:10. What will it run tomorrow, and what do you do about it?

M.3. (Ch.23) Twelve family combinations, a wrangler, and a rehearsal. What exactly is said, to whom, and when?

M.4. (Ch.21) An officiant is running a rite you do not know. What do you ask beforehand, and what is your role during it?

M.5. (Ch.3) A parent raises, at the rehearsal, that they expected to walk somebody in. Whose conversation is this and when should it have happened?

M.6. (Looks like one thing, is another) A wedding party member is uncooperative at the rehearsal. Name four things that might actually be going on.

Part E: Research and Extension ⭐⭐⭐⭐

E.1. Research the pre-performance procedures of a high-reliability field — aviation briefings, surgical checklists, or theatre calls. Write 800 words on what a wedding rehearsal could adopt, and be specific about what would not transfer.

E.2. Investigate what is known about checklists and verbal confirmation in reducing error — Gawande's work and the literature behind it. Write 700 words, and apply it honestly to §24.5a's confirmation loop.

E.3. Interview three people who have been in a wedding party. Ask what they were told, when, in what form, and what they were unsure about on the day. Report against the wedding party brief, and note anything they wanted that this chapter does not mention.

Solutions

Selected solutions: appendices/answers-to-selected.md. The rehearsal script, the wedding party brief, and the parents' brief: appendices/appendix-a-templates-and-worksheets.md.