Category Archives: Wedding Party

Why wedding music is so important

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When planning a Wedding, you’ll want the very best for your guests to enjoy. You’ll want the best food, the best decorations – and the best music to get them up out of their chairs and strutting their stuff on the dance floor all night long, which makes music at weddings so important.

If so, your big music decision is – wedding disco or live wedding band? Wedding discos have been popular for generations of newly-weds, and with good reason. Professional wedding DJ’s do much more than play tracks; they assess the age range of your guests, their energy levels, take requests, and create a flow of music that ensures all ages and all musical tastes have a great evening of non-stop dancing. 

If you’ve ever headed for your chair and a drink at a wedding disco, only to turn on your heels as another of your favourite tracks calls you back on the floor, that’s due to the skill of your wedding DJ! A top wedding DJ will have an impressive collection of tracks at his fingertips, and thanks to the wonders of technology, they’ll probably be stored on an easy to carry hard drive or a laptop. So, whatever your guests request on the night, chances are, your wedding DJ has it on file, or can even download it on the fly! 

Most wedding DJs also bring their own sound system and lighting, to turn a marquee or hotel function room into an instant nightclub atmosphere. They can usually integrate their kits with a venue’s own sound system if required, important if the venue has sound-limiting equipment installed. 

So, today’s wedding DJs can set themselves up in almost any space or room, perfect entertainment for smaller weddings and large venues alike. 

A live wedding band brings the energy and excitement of a live gig to your special day. Wedding and function bands are actually cover bands, who played all the hits you know and love. The best wedding bands play a wide selection of hits from the 1950s to the present day, so every guest can enjoy something they know, played live right in front of them. Every professional wedding band wants their audience (your guests) to have the best time possible, so they will tailor their performance just like a wedding DJ, to ensure the best range of music to suit all tastes. 

Although many wedding bands may be able to learn a special song just for you, it’s often easiest to pick a first dance song which is already in their play list. Likewise, classical musicians may read sheet music but a well rehearsed tune for your ceremony is far more preferable to putting manuscript in front of them and making the best of it. 

 

Getting the music mix right

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We all know that when it comes to creating the perfect atmosphere for your wedding, music plays an important part. But if you really want to personalise the soundtrack to your big day, why not consider a completely bespoke musical experience? Here are our top tips for creating bespoke wedding music that wows!

A string quartet playing Bohemian Rhapsody, for example sounds awesome. The traditional wedding march on electric guitar? Seriously cool. You can even see if your musicians will mix up their dress code and typical band setting – we once had a band who loosened their ties and set down their instruments before crowd surfing over guests!

Singing waiters may seem a bit cheesy to some, but they’re still great fun. Or you could try something similar – one of my favourite wedding gigs involved recreating the scene from the film Love Actually where the musicians sit amongst the congregation in the church and stand up as each instrumental section joins the wedding march.

When it comes to wedding entertainment, the sky’s the limit. Depending on your tastes you can choose from heavy metal, bandeoke (karaoke with a live band), reggaeoke (karaoke with a live reggae band), an opera performance, or even Burlesque dancers and fire eaters. Just decide on what’s going to make the day special for you and reflect your tastes, and go for it!

Combining Reggae with Charleston makes for a lot of fun, for example. Or mixing world music styles such as Sega and Mauritian traditional music. Speak to your band to see what’s possible. Depending on the preferences of you and your better half, don’t choose between them;combine them and make something totally unique to your personalities.

 

Ceremony songs

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When choosing the music for your wedding ceremony, you’ll need to make two important choices – your processional and recessional songs.

Wedding Ceremony Songs – Walking in and Walking out

A processional song is the music that you and your wedding party will walk down the aisle to – you can have one song for everyone, or choose a separate song for your grand entrance. At the end of the ceremony, you and your new husband leave the venue to your recessional music, which tends to be more upbeat than the processional.

There are traditional choices for both of these pieces of music, but we’ve given you a couple of options to consider. Listen and enjoy!

Processional Wedding Ceremony Songs

1. Bridal Chorus, Wagner

Often known as Here Comes The Bride, this piece of classical music is the traditional choice for the procession of the bride, and is often played on an organ. We’ve chosen a slightly more modern arrangement by Vicente Avella on classical piano – that way you can keep the element of tradition without the drama!

2. Canon in D, Pachelbel

Another very popular choice with brides. This gorgeous piece of music sounds beautiful played by a traditional quartet, but we also love this version by Per-Olov Kindgren on classical guitar.

3. A Thousand Years, The Piano Guys (originally Christina Perri)

Often couples can’t decide between a classic instrumental or a more modern love song with vocals for their processional music. Why not get the best of both worlds with an instrumental cover of one of your favourite songs? We seriously love this piano and cello cover of Christina Perri.

4. Glasgow Love Theme, from Love Actually

Walking down the aisle to a song from your favourite film soundtrack is another way to incorporate instrumental music with a personal touch into your ceremony. There are loads of options to choose from – Love Actually is a great place to start, and will have you welling up before you know it.

5. Marry Me, Train

If you want a modern song but aren’t sure what sort of thing to go for, then we think this a great choice. The melody and lyrics are both beautiful, and the tempo isn’t too fast for a processional.

6. Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Israel Kamakawiwo’Ole

For something a little bit different, you can’t beat this gorgeous ukulele cover – it’s sure to get everyone smiling!

Recessional Wedding Ceremony Songs

7. Wedding March, Mendelssohn

This is the traditional choice for the wedding recessional. This grand organ piece is definitely all about the high drama, so is best suited to larger or religious venues.

8. Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Handel

This classical piece may be intended to signify an arrival, but it works perfectly for a recessional – it’s high tempo and undoubtedly joyful. Perfect for more traditional couples.

9. Don’t Stop Believing, Vitamin String Quartet (originally Journey)

Another classical cover of a modern tune – we love this version of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing as played by a string quartet, as it strikes the perfect balance between traditional and contemporary.

10. Signed, Sealed, Delivered, Stevie Wonder

One of the most popular modern choices – and with good reason! After all, you and your new husband have just signed the wedding register, so the lyrics “signed, sealed, delivered – I’m yours!” are particularly meaningful.

11. First Day Of My Life, Bright Eyes

This adorable acoustic song is a great choice for couples looking for a quirky alternative, and we think it’s a lovely way to start the first day of your married life.

12. Now That We Found Love, Heavy D & The Boyz

For those looking for something truly different, we’ve loved this song for a wedding ever since we saw Will Smith and Eva Mendes get down to it in the last scene of Hitch. Do you think you and your new husband can beat their moves?

Depending on the venue you may be limited on live performances or online-based playlists, so you can always opt for this fail-safe CD with some classic wedding songs both old and new.

 

Entertain your guests

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When it comes to wedding reception entertainment ideas, there’s a number of ways which you can go. Many choose to simply ditch entertainment completely in favour of quiet talking or complete silence as guests struggle to work out just who they should speak to over their glass of Champagne. In order to break the ice, we think that a little wedding entertainment goes a long way and here are just a few ideas to get you started.

Tarot Card/Palm Reader)

Some strolling entertainment at your reception is often a fab way to get people chatting. Moving away from the music acts, there are some wonderfully romantic wedding entertainment ideas that at first might not seem obvious but then make sense when you’re there. One of these is looking into hiring a fortune teller, tarot card or palm reader. A great bit of fun, you never know, they may just see another wedding on the horizon between a couple of your guests!

Magician

If you aren’t too sure about predicting the future of those in your wedding party, ideas don’t come much better than hiring a magician for your big day. As the wedding reception entertainment, magic is sure to bring people together and provides a little relaxation for the Best Man and others ahead of the speeches later on! A graphologist is also an unusual entertainment idea for a wedding but no less compelling. Who doesn’t want to know what their handwriting tells an expert about them!? You never know, the writing might be on the wall for another marriage before too long.

Bagpiper

There’s nothing quite like completing the wedding vows and heading to the wedding reception to be met by dulcet tone of the Bagpipes. Many of the guests may be in kilts anyway so it’s a perfect excuse to celebrate your heritage! Admittedly if neither the groom or bride are Scottish or Irish, bagpipes may be a truly unusual wedding entertainment idea, but there are many other options.

Living Topiary

Living statues are the perfect solution for ensuring a good time is had by all. These living statues always go down well, whilst a puppet show is an endearing way to tell the story of the couple. It’s bespoke, imaginative and unusual wedding entertainment most guests won’t have seen before.

 

Intimate wedding vows

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Amidst the flurry of activities and planning for an upcoming wedding ceremony– wedding flowers and music, family seating arrangements and gift registration, wedding dress, cake and confetti–the content of the wedding vows may be overlooked. Often it is assumed the officiant or minister will read a bible quote and a page of traditional ceremony, written long ago by some anonymous author, followed by, “I do.” That will suffice, however, it misses the great power of commitment that personalized vows spoken aloud in public to one’s beloved before family, friends, and officials represent.

A couple truly begins crafting their vows in private intimate moments long before their formal engagement and wedding. These romantic whisperings and conversations are the basis for a growing trust and love that reveal how each sees the other and articulate their hopes for an everlasting relationship. Such shared understandings and aspirations are the heart and soul of marriage, and blossom into an enduring commitment when nourished by the couple sharing what they cherish in each other with the world.

Wedding vows haven’t always been up to the bride and groom. The word wedding derives from an Old English word “wedd,” which means to wager or to redeem a pledge. Grooms would have been required to acknowledge living arrangements and property divisions, usually made between the bride’s and groom’s families, out loud before the typically heavily armed gathering of relatives and townspeople.

Our modern decree by the minister that should anyone object to this marriage or forever hold your piece is a symbolic vestige of what may have been, in older times, an important declaration that may have sparked objections. The tradition of a bride standing to the groom’s left, his heart side, comes from the very practical need in such circumstances of having the right sword arm free in case there should arise a dispute about the deal. Today we have lawyers and prenuptial agreements, so maybe progress has been made.

Cultures around the world have unique imperatives regarding what constitutes proper wedding vows. Brokers, yentas, or matchmakers arrange many weddings for financial, political, or social status purposes. The bartering may have gone on for years before the engagement, commitment, and wedding ceremony. The vows uttered during the ceremony then take on the role of an important social contract.

More and more couples are meeting on the Internet, whether through a service matching potential brides from Asia or Eastern Europe or through online dating chat rooms where romantically oriented people can meet in cyberspace and get to know each other before arranging a first date.

However a couple meets, dates, goes through a courtship, or just loves being with each other, wedding vows can reflect and reinforce the most private commitments that mean so much. Whether the vows are a time-honored tradition, a sacred promise before God, a lifetime commitment pledge, an inspiration to open hearts to a deeper trust, or an expression of what meaning a beloved has brought to the relationship, the purpose of wedding vows is to express the depth of love and commitment to all who will listen.

 

Don’t let the little things get you down

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When planning a wedding every bride-to-be will know she’s not alone here. We know, it’s not just the mother-in-law that can be a bit of a pain, it’s your own mother too, but what you need to remember is that it’s all out of the goodness of their hearts. Sometimes they just need a little bit of reminding that it’s your wedding day.

The days leading up to the wedding: the last thing that you want is something that you’ve been planning gets cancelled. Whether that be some mishap with your chosen florist, wedding entertainment, or even one of your invited guests. Whilst your wedding flowers being cancelled is worse than the seats at your reception not being filled, either way, just breathe. Remain calm, and your problems will be resolved quicker.

You think you’re getting to the end of the list, happily ticking it all off, but then you’ve found that somehow more things to do have magically appeared on the end. Ticking off one thing makes you remember to do another. It just keeps going, and going, and going, and going. Will it ever end? The answer is yes! Keep it up – you’ll miss it when it’s gone!

Something that is super annoying, and understandably so, are the people who are SO up for helping you out with bits and bobs for your wedding, but then… then they just don’t. You don’t understand why, because you swear they were just excited as you were. But you know what? That’s not what you need, so focus on what you – and the friends that WILL stick to it – can get done!

There is nothing worse than getting excited about your wedding plans with one of your friends or family members and their reply to be, “Oh yes, Sally did that” or “Well, Sally didn’t do it like that “. Firstly, you don’t care what Sally did, and secondly why mention that!? You needn’t worry about any comparisons or any expectations, because it’s YOUR wedding and not Sally’s!

 

How to choose your wedding party

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Try to keep it balanced. While it’s perfectly fine to have more women than men (or vice versa) in your wedding party, do your best to keep it close to balanced so it doesn’t look odd in photos. If you find yourself with a large difference, consider narrowing down your wedding party to just one or two on each side to keep it under control.

When planning a wedding, think about your overall event size. If you’re having a 25-person or less wedding, having a large wedding party would just be awkward. Scale down your party in accordance with your event size.

Are you having a formal or casual wedding? For the most part, casual weddings are more suited to smaller wedding parties, where formal weddings can support a larger one.

Start with siblings. Especially if you’re having a small wedding party, invite siblings before you invite friends. Your family has always and will always be a part of your lives, so they should come first.

Consider their circumstances. Being in a wedding party requires a significant investment of time and money. Make sure that your invitation to serve as a wedding attendant won’t be a hardship on anyone.

Remember there are other ways to honour people. If you have a lot of people you want to stand up for you at your wedding but there isn’t room in the wedding party, consider inviting people to serve as ushers, guest book attendants, gift collectors, speakers, singers, or other important roles on your special day instead.

Pick people you can rely on. Your wedding party is meant to include people who do more than just stand beside you and smile for pictures. You’ll need to rely on them for any number of things before and during the wedding. Choose your party accordingly.

Consider how long you’ve known them. Once you’ve asked your family, it’s time to consider which friends you’d like to ask to stand up for you. I recommend beginning with the friends you’ve known the longest, the ones who have been there with you through thick or thin. Those are the friends who are most likely to help you out when you need it, and who will remain a part of your life after the wedding.

These are some quick tips on choosing your wedding party, but the fact is, there aren’t any hard and fast rules. Do what works best for you and your wedding.

 

How to choose the right music

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We suggest that you don’t choose anything too cutting edge. That doesn’t mean to say you can’t show off your taste in music but if you choose that week’s number one hit, you might regret it in years to come. Just as you might regret wearing a wedding dress that’s heavily styled for the moment. Go a little classic and you’ll never be out of style.

There are also some things you’ll need to bear in mind when making your music choices.

You need to consider just how long it’s going to take you to walk down the aisle. It usually takes about one to two minutes for most brides to walk the aisle. So choose a piece that doesn’t have a long intro or is instantly recognisable. If you’re planning a religious ceremony, some churches won’t allow you to play non-classical music or your own music. So you need to check your choices with the vicar.

Next, you should be thinking about how your wedding music is going to be played. If it’s in a religious building, keep it classic and have it played on the organ. Alternatively, you could organise your own musicians to fill the hall with romance.

Four pieces of music to play when you walk down the aisle;

  • The wedding processional from the Sound of Music.

  • Clair de Lune by Debussy.

  • For The Love of a Princess from Braveheart.

  • The Bridal Chorus by Wagner.

Well this is the most traditional of traditional music to walk up the aisle to. Everybody will know you’ve arrived when this starts to play!

Now what about after you’ve said your vows? When you’ve signed the register and you’re legally man and wife and starting the first steps on your new life together?

Here you can change the tempo a little bit, and have something that’s celebratory and uplifting.

  • Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours by Stevie Wonder.

This says it all really. You’ve said your vows and you’re on your way. A timeless piece that’s joyful, catchy and instantly recognisable.

 

How to choose your wedding party

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1. Think about your overall event size. If you’re having a 25-person or less wedding, having a large wedding party would just be awkward. Scale down your party in accordance with your event size.

2. Are you having a formal or casual wedding? For the most part, casual weddings are more suited to smaller wedding parties, where formal weddings can support a larger one.

3. Try to keep it balanced. While it’s perfectly fine to have more women than men (or vice versa) in your wedding party, do your best to keep it close to balanced so it doesn’t look odd in photos. If you find yourself with a large difference, consider narrowing down your wedding party to just one or two on each side to keep it under control.

4. Start with siblings. Especially if you’re having a small wedding party, invite siblings before you invite friends. Your family has always and will always be a part of your lives, so they should come first.

5. Consider their circumstances. Being in a wedding party requires a significant investment of time and money. Make sure that your invitation to serve as a wedding attendant won’t be a hardship on anyone.

6. Remember there are other ways to honour people. If you have a lot of people you want to stand up for you at your wedding but there isn’t room in the wedding party, consider inviting people to serve as ushers, guest book attendants, gift collectors, speakers, singers, or other important roles on your special day instead.

7. Pick people you can rely on. Your wedding party is meant to include people who do more than just stand beside you and smile for pictures. You’ll need to rely on them for any number of things before and during the wedding. Choose your party accordingly.

8. Consider how long you’ve known them. Once you’ve asked your family, it’s time to consider which friends you’d like to ask to stand up for you. I recommend beginning with the friends you’ve known the longest, the ones who have been there with you through thick or thin. Those are the friends who are most likely to help you out when you need it, and who will remain a part of your life after the wedding.

These are our quick tips on choosing your wedding party, but the fact is, there aren’t any hard and fast rules. Do what works best for you and your wedding.

Share your Wedding with everyone

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Wedding ceremonies are all about sharing. While the big day ultimately belongs to you, the couple getting hitched, it’s also a special and significant moment for the people who know and love you best. So, how can you involve your guests to make your wedding day into a truly shared experience for everyone. Here are some ideas.

Ceremonial rituals

For centuries, people have used rituals to help cement their unions. One relatively new wedding ritual is the lighting of the unity candle, where close family members of the betrothed couple light a separate candle each before the ceremony. The newlyweds then take their respective candles and bring them together to light one single flame.

In a twist to include everyone in your new union, you could hold a version of this ceremony in reverse, letting each guest light a candle of their own from your united flame.

Confetti throwing

Showering confetti over the happy couple is another time-honoured wedding ritual. Make sure everyone is prepared for the big moment by handing out confetti dispensers like wands or cannons to all your guests. This is a job that you can delegate to a trustworthy member of the wedding party. Alternatively, why not set up a ‘confetti bar’ beforehand, so that everyone can mix and match their own unique concoction?

Music mixtape

Once you’re on the dancefloor, you’ll want everyone to come and join the party. Why not make everyone feel included by playing one song for each guest? (You can ask them to nominate their chosen track when they RSVP to your invitation). The DJ can announce any special dedications or significant songs with comments from the nominator. The mixtape approach will make your reception into a truly communal experience that everyone will appreciate… and they’ll have no excuse not to get up on their feet and boogie!

Photo opportunities

Posing for wedding photos is the perfect opportunity to get everyone involved while creating some stunning shots! You could set up an aerial shot and get everyone to stand in formation to make a heart shape or a word. Or if you have suitable space, why not lead everyone in a procession around the grounds of your wedding venue? It’ll be a special, shared experience to cherish, and you’ll be able to treasure some ‘action shots’ of all your guests together.

Like and share

Yes, today’s wedding ceremonies can now be digital events! Why not create a real-time Twitter Wall at your reception, where you can project your guests’ tweets by giving them a dedicated #weddinghashtag?

It’s also good to give your guests somewhere they can all share their respective photos of the day. Wedding apps like WedPics allow your guests to upload all their snaps to one central place, making sure you don’t miss a thing! Alternatively, set up a Facebook event for your wedding day. This will ensure that everyone can communicate and stay in touch after the big day, if they so wish.