Quiz: The Rehearsal

Target: 70% or higher.

Section 1: Multiple Choice (1 point each)

1. The chapter's threshold concept is:

  • A) A rehearsal ensures the ceremony runs smoothly
  • B) A rehearsal is not a practice — it is the last chance to discover a wrong thing while it is still Friday
  • C) A rehearsal should take under an hour
  • D) The wedding party must be briefed in person
Answer **B).** Nobody needs to practise walking. **A wedding party can walk down an aisle without instruction and will do it approximately correctly.** **And most of what a rehearsal discovers has nothing to do with walking** — a microphone that does not carry, a father who has not been told he is speaking, a reading that is four minutes long, a step nobody noticed. *Reference:* §24.1

2. The four jobs of a rehearsal are: put people in space, run the tests, assign day-of roles, and:

  • A) Practise the vows
  • B) Reduce anxiety
  • C) Photograph the space
  • D) Confirm the timeline with vendors
Answer **B) Reduce anxiety** — and it is not a soft benefit. **An anxious wedding party improvises.** They ask the couple questions on the morning, arrive early and get in the way or late and are chased, **and make decisions at 3:40 p.m. that nobody asked them to make**, because uncertainty is uncomfortable and doing something resolves it. **A briefed wedding party does none of that.** *Reference:* §24.2

3. In a forty-five-minute rehearsal, the walking should take about:

  • A) 5 minutes
  • B) 13 minutes
  • C) 25 minutes
  • D) The whole session
Answer **B) About 13** — walked twice: once slowly with explanation (8 min), once at pace in silence (5 min). **A third pass adds nothing and a fourth loses the room.** **And job 1 — the only one anybody expects — is a third of the session.** The tests are 10, the assignments 8. *Reference:* §24.2, §24.3

4. The strongest teaching technique in §24.4 is:

  • A) Naming people rather than saying "the next one"
  • B) Running the second pass in silence
  • C) Giving each person one thing to remember
  • D) Using physical marks
Answer **B) Running the second pass in silence.** **If they can do it without instruction, they know it. If they cannot, you have found out** — which is the whole purpose of the block. **And the closely related one:** physical marks rather than verbal descriptions. *"Stand on this"* survives the night; **"about here, next to Elena" is not an instruction.** *Reference:* §24.4

5. A rehearsal processional walks how much faster than the real one?

  • A) About the same
  • B) 5–10% faster
  • C) 20–40% faster
  • D) It is slower, because people are unfamiliar
Answer **C) 20–40% faster.** The rehearsal is walked by people in jeans, unwatched, unencumbered, and not nervous. **The day involves a dress, heels on grass, a bouquet, an arm, and a hundred people looking.** **Use Chapter 20's 45 seconds a unit, not the 30 the rehearsal suggests** — and **walk it once at the real pace**, deliberately and absurdly slowly, because racing is the most common processional failure. *Reference:* §24.4

6. How many of the four tests involve walking?

  • A) All four
  • B) Two
  • C) One
  • D) None
Answer **D) None.** **The four-minute sound test · the readings, aloud and timed · the physical walk-through of everything that is not the aisle · and the reverse run.** **Which is what separates a rehearsal from a walk-through.** All four fail loudly on a Friday and silently on a Saturday. *Reference:* §24.5

7. The four-minute test needs no equipment because:

  • A) The PA will not have arrived
  • B) It tests geometry rather than kit
  • C) Phones are adequate
  • D) The officiant provides it
Answer **B).** Distance, direction, and how quietly two people will actually speak. **The PA can only fix what the geometry leaves.** **If the couple are inaudible from row three unamplified, the problem is where they are standing and which way they are facing** — free to fix on a Friday and impossible on a Saturday. *Reference:* §24.5, Ch.18

8. The reverse run consists of:

  • A) Walking the processional backwards
  • B) Asking three people what happens immediately after their part
  • C) Running the ceremony from the end
  • D) Reversing the seating plan
Answer **B).** *"Danny, you've walked in and you're standing there. What happens next?"* **If they can answer, the sequence is understood. If they say 'I don't know, somebody will tell me' — that is a person who will look at you at 4:33 tomorrow.** **Ninety seconds, and it tests comprehension rather than compliance**, which nothing else in the rehearsal does. *Reference:* §24.5

9. Of the twelve common Friday discoveries, how many are communication failures rather than physical ones?

  • A) Three
  • B) Six
  • C) Nine
  • D) All twelve
Answer **C) Nine of twelve.** **Which reframes the rehearsal:** it is not where coordination happens; it is **where you find out whether your coordination worked.** **A planner discovering nine things on a Friday evening is a planner whose −2 week week did not happen** — and the real instruments are the confirmation loop and the two-document comparison, which cost half an hour between them. *Reference:* §24.5a

10. The more valuable half of the confirmation question is:

  • A) "You're doing a reading, is that right?"
  • B) "Is there anything else you thought you were doing?"
  • C) "Do you have any questions?"
  • D) "Can you confirm you'll be there?"
Answer **B).** **The first half only tests what you already believe.** It cannot find the thing you do not know about — **and what you do not know about is precisely the risk.** **It also gives permission.** The most common discovery it produces — a parent who expected to walk somebody in — is almost always a person who did not want to seem to be asking. *Reference:* §24.5a

11. Every cue consists of:

  • A) A time and a place
  • B) A thing to watch for and a thing to do
  • C) An instruction and a confirmation
  • D) A name and a position
Answer **B).** **If either half is missing it is not a cue.** **And a cue survives where a running order does not, because on the day nobody is holding a document.** A cue is externally triggered rather than internally tracked — *"you go when the music changes"* works even for somebody who has lost count or has been quietly panicking for four minutes. *Reference:* §24.6

12. Day-of assignments should be:

  • A) Sent in a group chat
  • B) Given privately to avoid embarrassment
  • C) Named out loud in front of the others, with a time, and written the same night
  • D) Left flexible so people can help where needed
Answer **C).** **Public assignment is the mechanism — ten people heard it.** One thing each, because two things is a person who does one of them. A time on it, not "later." Written and sent the same night. **And checked against their other jobs**, because the most capable person in a family gets assigned everything. *Reference:* §24.7

Section 2: True/False with Justification (1 point each)

13. The processional should be walked until it is smooth.

Answer **False. Twice.** Once slowly with explanation, once at pace in silence. **A third pass adds nothing and a fourth loses the room** — and you need the room's attention for the tests, which are the part that actually finds things. **And smoothness at a rehearsal is not evidence about the day anyway**, because the day is 20–40% slower and involves a dress, heels on grass, and a hundred people watching.

14. A wedding party group chat is an adequate way to send the brief.

Answer **False. It is where the brief goes to die.** Information posted in a chat is **read once, by six of eight people, and is unfindable by Saturday.** **Send a document** — a PDF, an email, one scrollable message — **and send it individually as well as to the group**, because the person who most needs it is the one who has muted the chat. **The test:** on Saturday morning, can somebody find out where to be without asking anybody?

15. Parents can be given a copy of the wedding party brief.

Answer **False. They have a different set of questions and one of them is not logistical.** Parents want **the photograph schedule** (the most-asked parental question), where they sit, whether they are speaking and for how long, **and — at a wedding with any family complication — what the arrangement is regarding the other parent.** **The underlying question is "is everything all right, and does anybody need me?"** A one-page document answers it in advance; the alternative is a parent asking the couple on the morning. **And at a wedding with a divorce, saying nothing is not neutral** — a parent who has not been told will assume the least generous version.

16. Ushers need no briefing.

Answer **False. They are the most useful and least briefed people at any wedding.** They see every guest arrive, they can seat somebody who is struggling, and **they are standing at the door with nothing to do.** **Five minutes covers:** the reserved front rows and what to say · watching for anybody struggling with the ground · programmes · **starting the exit** · and "come to me if anything is wrong." **And the exit is the important one.** Chapter 20's officiant sentence halves the transition **only if somebody physically starts the front row moving** — otherwise the back leaves first and the front is trapped.

17. If somebody proposes a change at 5:47 on the Friday, you should evaluate it on the spot.

Answer **False, and the reason is not that the idea is bad.** > *"That might well be better — can we look at it tonight rather than now? There are eleven people standing here and the officiant's got the order in his head."* **It does not dismiss the idea and it removes the decision from a group of tired people standing in a field.** **And about a third of the time the person does not raise it again**, which is its own information.

Section 3: Short Answer (2 points each)

18. Write the forty-five-minute rehearsal script.

Sample Answer | | | Min | |---|---|---:| | **0:00** | Gather everybody. **Say what is about to happen and how long it will take** | 3 | | 0:03 | Positions at the front — **marks, not descriptions** | 5 | | 0:08 | **Walk the processional once, slowly, with explanation** | 8 | | 0:16 | **Walk it a second time at pace, in silence** | 5 | | **0:21** | **★ THE TESTS** | **10** | | 0:31 | The recessional and the exit sentence | 4 | | **0:35** | **★ DAY-OF ASSIGNMENTS, by name** | **8** | | 0:43 | Questions, and the sentence | 2 | | **0:45** | Done | | **Three notes.** The processional goes twice, not five times. **The tests come after the walking** — everybody is in position and attentive — **and before the assignments**, because the assignments release people. And it has a **stated end time**, which is what stops it running to seventy minutes. **And if it finishes at thirty-eight minutes, stop.** A rehearsal that ends early sends people away believing the whole thing is under control, which is job 4 delivered for free. *Rubric:* All blocks with times; walking capped at two passes; tests placed after walking and before assignments; full credit includes the stated end time and finishing early.

19. Describe the four tests and what each finds.

Sample Answer **1. The four-minute test.** The actual couple, in the actual positions, saying an actual line **at the volume they intend to use** — quietly, with embarrassment — while the planner walks to the back row. **No equipment, because it tests geometry.** Findings and Friday-evening actions: audible unamplified (rare, lovely) · audible at row 6 not row 12 (a normal PA solves it) · **inaudible from row 3 (the geometry is wrong — move the couple, turn the setup, bring the rows forward, all free)** · wind in your ears (windscreens and a lav, $12). **2. The readings, aloud and timed.** Catches length, audibility, **whether they have practised (almost none have)**, whether the piece is right, and whether the copy is on paper rather than a phone that will sleep. **3. The physical walk-through of everything that is not the aisle.** Where the couple stand, where the rings are, where anyone sits, where the exit goes, where the signing happens — **and every step, threshold, gravel path, and slope.** *"Somebody in heels, on grass, at night, will find it if you do not."* **4. The reverse run.** Ask three people what happens immediately after their part. **Ninety seconds, and it tests comprehension rather than compliance.** **None of the four involves walking**, which is what separates a rehearsal from a walk-through. *Rubric:* All four with what each finds; must state the four-minute test's no-equipment reason; full credit gives the reverse run's distinction between comprehension and compliance.

20. Write the day-of assignment block, spoken aloud.

Sample Answer > "Last thing, and then you can all go and eat. **I'm going to give some of you a job.** Each one is one thing, it's written down, and I'll message it to you tonight so you don't have to remember it. > > **Beatriz — family photographs.** You've got the list. Straight after the ceremony, at the top of the meadow. **You're the one who finds people, not me.** > > **Danny — the rings**, and then at 8:40 four cocktail tables from the tent into the barn. > > **Elena — you've got Rosa.** After the ceremony you take her out first, before everyone else moves, and at about nine you'll take her home. > > **Tomás — you're on the gate from half three until four.** Anyone who looks lost, point them at the meadow. > > **And everybody: if anything goes wrong tomorrow, or you're not sure, or you can't find someone — you come to me. Not to Alicia and Sam.**" **The five rules it follows:** one thing each · **named out loud in front of the others**, which is the mechanism · written and sent the same night · **with a time on it** · and checked against that person's other jobs. **And the closing sentence is the one people thank you for**, because eleven people have been quietly worrying about what to do if something goes wrong, and now they know. *Rubric:* Names people individually; one job each with a time; ends with the single-point-of-contact sentence; full credit states that public assignment is the mechanism.

Section 4: Applied Scenario (5 points)

21. A rehearsal, Friday 5:30, at a country house. Wedding party of ten. Four readings. Two families who have never met. One partner's parents are divorced; the other's father died last year.

The complications. Three of the ten are arriving from an airport and will be forty minutes late. The officiant has a funeral and can only be there from 6:00. The venue has a wedding on and has given you the lawn, not the ceremony room. The rehearsal dinner is booked for 6:30 for thirty people. And one of the readers has told the couple, that afternoon, that they do not want to read.

Produce: (a) what you do about the timing; (b) how you run it without the ceremony room; (c) the officiant problem; (d) the reader; (e) what you prioritise if you only get twenty-five usable minutes.

Sample Answer **(a) The timing.** **Four constraints and they do not fit:** ten people, three of whom arrive at 6:10 · an officiant available from 6:00 · dinner at 6:30 · and a lawn instead of the ceremony room. **Twenty-five minutes of everybody, at most.** **Restructure into two blocks:** | | | Who | |---|---|---| | **5:30–6:00** | **Everything that does not need the officiant or the late three:** front-of-aisle positions · one slow walk-through with the seven who are present · **the readings, aloud and timed** (Test 2) · the physical walk-through (Test 3) | 7 people | | **6:00–6:25** | **Officiant arrives. Late three arrive ~6:10.** One walk at pace in silence · **the four-minute test** (Test 1) · **the reverse run** (Test 4) · **assignments** | Everybody | | **6:25** | Done. **Dinner at 6:30 and it starts on time** | | **And move the dinner to 6:45 if the venue will allow it**, which is one phone call and buys the whole thing breathing room. **(b) Running it on the lawn.** **The walking half is largely fine** — you can lay out the shape anywhere and the marks are relative. **What is not fine is Tests 1 and 3**, both of which are about the actual space. **What to do:** **Walk the ceremony room alone**, before 5:30 or after the dinner, and **do Test 3 yourself** — steps, thresholds, the exit, where the signing happens. **A planner can do it alone; it just has to be done.** **Test 1 cannot be faked and it is the one that matters.** Options: **ask the venue for ten minutes in the room at 5:20 with just the couple and the officiant** — frequently granted, because it is four people and no furniture · **or do it on Saturday morning**, which is late but not too late, since the fixes (move the couple, turn the setup, windscreens) are all executable at 3 p.m. **And say to the couple, plainly:** *"we can't test the sound tonight. I'm doing it at nine tomorrow morning, and if there's a problem we've got six hours."* **(c) The officiant.** **The rehearsal runs without them for the first thirty minutes and that is fine** — you can walk the shape, do the readings, and do the physical check. **What needs them:** the four-minute test (they hold a microphone), the cue briefing, and any question about the order. **And the more important item, which is not on the night at all: §24.5a's discovery 11.** Two families, four readings, a deceased parent, and a divorce — **the officiant's order and your run sheet must be read against each other**, and 6:00 to 6:25 on a Friday is not when to do it. **Do it now, on the phone, before Friday.** Six minutes. **(d) The reader.** **The couple were told this afternoon. It is Friday. And the reader is one of ten people about to stand in a field.** **Handle it privately, before the rehearsal starts** — not in front of the group, and not by asking them to explain. > *"I hear you'd rather not read tomorrow, and that's completely fine — nobody's going to ask you why and nobody will mention it. Can I offer you two other things? You can read it sitting down, if it's the standing up. Or somebody else reads it and you're not involved at all. Or we drop it and there are three readings. Whichever you want, and you can tell me in the morning."* **Three things that does.** It accepts immediately, without negotiation. **It offers a middle option** — sitting down — because *"I don't want to read"* frequently means *"I don't want to stand in front of everybody,"* and nobody has offered the smaller version. **And it gives them until morning**, which removes the pressure of deciding in front of a rehearsal. **And the planning consequence:** if it becomes three readings, **the ceremony is two minutes shorter and the officiant needs to know tonight** — which is exactly why the officiant call in (c) matters. **(e) If I only get twenty-five usable minutes.** **In order, and I would stop when the time went:** | | | Why | |---|---|---| | **1** | **Assignments, by name** (6 min) | **An unassigned task is an unhappened task**, and it is the only block that has no substitute | | **2** | **The four-minute test** (4 min) | Silent failure, and free to fix tonight | | **3** | **The reverse run** (2 min) | Ninety seconds, tests comprehension | | **4** | **Readings, aloud and timed** (6 min) | Four readings and one reluctant reader | | **5** | **One walk-through at pace** (5 min) | Enough | | **6** | The slow explanatory walk | **First to go** | | **7** | The physical walk-through | **Doable alone, later** | **And the sentence, always, whatever else is cut:** *"if anything goes wrong tomorrow, you come to me. Not to them."* **Note that the walking — the only thing anybody expected — is fifth and sixth.** *Rubric:* | Criterion | 0 | 1 | 2 | |---|---|---|---| | Timing (a) | Notes the conflict | Restructures into blocks | Two blocks that work around all four constraints, **plus moving dinner to 6:45 as a one-phone-call fix** | | The lawn (b) | Notes the problem | Separates what can and cannot be done elsewhere | Both, **plus asking for ten minutes with four people for Test 1**, and telling the couple plainly what is being deferred | | Officiant (c) | Works around their absence | Assigns what needs them to the second block | Both, **plus doing the two-document comparison on the phone before Friday** | | The reader (d) | Accepts gracefully | Accepts and offers alternatives | Accepts without negotiation, **offers the sitting-down middle option**, gives them until morning, **and traces the consequence to the officiant and the ceremony length** | | Priorities (e) | Ranks the blocks | Ranks with reasoning | Ranks with reasoning, **puts assignments first and walking fifth**, and keeps the closing sentence regardless | *Scoring: (a)=1, (b)=1, (c)=1, (d)=1, (e)=1.*

Scoring and Next Steps

Score Assessment What to do
Under 50% Needs review Re-read §24.2, §24.5, §24.7. Redo Part A.
50–70% Partial Do B.1 (write a script) and B.2 (convert eight lines into cues).
70–85% Solid Proceed to Part VI. Do C.4 first.
Over 85% Strong Proceed. Deep Dive: case-study-02.md, then C.1 and E.3.

Regardless of score: do C.4 — run the four-minute test outdoors with two people speaking quietly, then again with a breeze. Ten minutes, and it is the single most valuable procedure in Part V.