How to Show a Montage at a Rehearsal Dinner With No Screen

Most rehearsal dinner montages play in a restaurant private room, and most private rooms were built for dinner, not for a film. This is how to get yours onto a screen the whole room can see and hear, in order of how much of the work lands on you.

Ask the venue four questions

Is there a TV in the private room, how big is it, and does it have an HDMI input we are allowed to use?
Is there sound connected to that TV, or is it a muted screen above the bar?
Can the lights come down for ten minutes, and who on staff will be in the room to help?
Where would the screen stand so that every seat has a sight line, and is there an outlet near it?

A rule of thumb from the rooms we have played: a TV under 55 inches, or a TV with no speaker of its own, is a screen in name only once forty people are seated and the kitchen is running.

Four ways to get the film on a screen

The venue's own screen and sound: The best option when it exists. Ask for the input type, test it on the walkthrough with the actual file, and bring the montage on a laptop and a USB stick on the night. What goes wrong: the screen turns out to be the bar TV with no sound, or the input is behind a locked cabinet and the one person with the key has gone home.
The DJ or the band: If you hired entertainment for the dinner, they usually have a speaker and sometimes a screen. Send them the file a week out and agree on the cue. What goes wrong: most rehearsal dinners have no DJ, and a band's sound is built for music, not for the voice on a home video.
Rent a TV and a speaker: An AV rental company delivers a TV on a stand and a speaker, usually with pickup the next day. It works, and it is the right call for a room where we are not the ones who made the film. What goes wrong: someone still has to connect the laptop, test the audio, dim the lights and press play at the right second. That is usually a family member, who then watches the back of the screen instead of the room.
The Montage Premiere: If we made your montage, we bring a 65-inch 4K screen, sound, a backup copy of the film and one of our team who sets up before guests arrive, confirms the cue with you and plays it. The film and the screen were planned together, so the aspect ratio, the audio levels and the moment are already settled. What goes wrong: nothing you have to carry. The honest limit is room size: the screen holds up to about 75 seated guests, and a ballroom is better served by the venue's own system. See the Montage Premiere.

When the film should play

Between the main course and dessert: Everyone is seated, nobody is in line at the bar, and the kitchen can hold dessert for ten minutes. After the toasts, before the room gets loud again.
Five to ten minutes, no longer: A rehearsal dinner montage is a Classic or Premium film, five to ten minutes. Longer than that and the room starts looking at its phones.
Tell the restaurant: Service pauses while the film plays. The manager needs to know the time and the length so plates are not cleared through the best part.
Pick who introduces it: Thirty seconds from a parent or the couple, then the lights come down. A film that starts without a word is a film the room half-watches.

The checklist, whoever is pressing play

The film on two devices: a laptop and a USB stick, both tested that day.
The exact cable or adapter the venue's input needs, tested on the walkthrough, not guessed on the night.
An audio check at the volume it will play, from the far end of the room, with the kitchen door open.
Do Not Disturb on whatever device plays it. One text notification over the first kiss is one too many.
A name next to the words press play, lights down and lights up, agreed before the first guest arrives.
The seating plan checked against the screen: the table that cannot see it is the table that talks through it.

Or skip the list. If we made your montage, the Montage Premiere is every line on it, carried in by us.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a restaurant TV play a montage from a phone?

Often, through an HDMI adapter, but a phone is the riskiest player in the room: a call or a notification interrupts the film, and wireless casting rarely works on a restaurant's network. Play it from a laptop in Do Not Disturb, with the file saved locally rather than streamed.

How big a screen do I need for a rehearsal dinner?

For up to about 40 guests a 55-inch TV at the head of the room is the floor. For 50 to 75 guests use a 65-inch screen, placed so the long axis of the room faces it. A projector only works with the lights down, which most restaurants cannot do at the main course.

What if the rehearsal dinner is at a house or in a backyard?

Then there is no screen at all, and it is the room the Montage Premiere was built for: the screen stands on its own floor stand, the speakers fill a patio, and one of our team handles the setup, the cue and the teardown so the hosts can host.

Does the venue charge to use its screen?

Some do, as an AV fee on the private-room contract, and some only allow their own staff to connect to it. Ask when you book the room, and ask whether the fee includes someone in the room on the night.

Do you bring the screen for mitzvahs and birthdays too?

Yes. The Montage Premiere plays any montage we made, at any room without a DJ or a house screen: bar and bat mitzvah parties at smaller venues, temple social halls, birthdays, anniversaries and backyard celebrations across Chicago and the suburbs.

Start with the film: Ever After Montages for the wedding weekend, Mitzvah Montages for the party. Tell us the date, the venue and whether there is a screen: Check Availability. Photo prep lives in the Montage Photo Guide.