Friday, January 9, 2009

Prepping for a wedding

You have your brides who are laid back, your brides who are up tight, and of course, many who are somewhere in between. The laid back brides plan the wedding about 2 months or less before the event. The uptight brides (Bridezilla type) have every nuance and detail planned within 24 hours of accepting the engagement ring. And every minute of their wedding day is filled to accomodate the many details of dressing for the big event.

But what if you have one minute to get ready for the big day?

In "Prelude to a Kiss" the bride and groom meet, get to know each other, live with each other, meet the parents, and are propelled down the aisle in about 30 minutes! This means that the actual wedding takes place without a lot of time to prepare the bride and groom for their great day.

The groom dresses before your eyes on stage. His best man brings in his tux and cumberbund and dresses him while he is speaking. The bride has about 1 minute, divided into 2 30 second sessions to get out of her other clothes, and into her wedding garb for the big event. We've developed a routine, and will practice it in upcoming rehearsals to perfect our timing to send her out on stage with the zippers zipped and veil arranged! Her maid of honor holds the veil, I attach the overskirt, AFTER she strips down to her bathing suit (for the honeymoon scene, which is immediately following after she strips off the wedding gown) and we zip up her gown. It's a flurry of activity. These continuous scenes always work better in movies than in stage plays!

I had a short "bridal" costume change to deal with in Oklahoma. In the span of 10 minutes, Laurey and Curley got married (change #1), spent their wedding night and were chivareed (change # 2), Judd got killed, Curley was tried (change #3), and they left for their honeymoon (change #4)! AND SANG "OKLAHOMA" IN BETWEEN! This meant 4 very quick changes in 10 minutes, with about 30 seconds each behind the curtain! During one of our practices before we had the routine down pat, Curley adlibbed "Be there in a minute!", because she wasn't ready, which brought on gales of laughter! We had to velcro Laurey into her clothes because buttons were not an option for that quick change. I followed her as she came off one scene to the curtain call to make sure she wasn't hanging out somewhere, I tucked her in as she lurched forth onto the stage!

So you brides who have plenty of time to prepare--be glad for that luxury. Those stage brides and grooms can't even sneak a peak in the mirror to see if things are in place on their BIG DAY!

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