Tag Archives: wedding

Personal wedding music

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The Wedding ceremony music has to be right for both of you, and to have the right piece played, you will remember your wedding day for years to come.

Music is a very personal to each individual whatever your faith it will play a very important part in your Wedding Entertainment.  You don’t have to be from a particular faith to enjoy a piece of music, just go what feels best for you.

Favourite choices for Christian weddings:

 

  1. “Amazing Grace” (American Folk Melody)
  2. “Ave Maria” (F. Schubert)
  3. “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” (J. S. Bach)
  4. “The Lord’s Prayer” (A.H. Malotte)
  5. “Simple Gifts” (Elder Joseph)

 

Favourite choices for Jewish weddings:

 

  1. “Dodi Li” (N. Chen)
  2. “Erev Ba” (O. Avissar & A. Levanon)
  3. “Siman Tov” (traditional Israeli song)
  4. “Sunrise Sunset” from the musical “Fiddler on the Roof”

 

Favourite choices for Celtic weddings:

 

  1. “Mairi’s Wedding”
  2. “Star of the County Down”
  3. “When Irish Eyes are Smiling”
  4. “Skye Boat Song”
  5. “My Wild Irish Rose”

 

Wedding Ceremony Music– The Common Requests

 

  1. “Air in G” from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D (J.S. Bach)
  2. “Ode to Joy” from Symphony No. 9(Beethoven)
  3. “Trumpet Voluntary” or “Prince of Denmark’s March” (J. Clarke)
  4. “Clair de Lune” (C. Debussy)
  5. “Hornpipe” from Water Music Suite (G.F. Handel)
  6. “Wedding March” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (F. Mendelssohn)
  7. “Canon in D” (J. Pachelbel)
  8. “Allegro from Spring”, first movement theme from The Four Seasons (A. Vivaldi)
  9. “Bridal March” from the opera Lohengrin or “Here Comes the Bride” (R. Wagner)

Great wedding entertainment

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How many of those who have been married can remember each and every guest twenty years later? If only there was a way to remember… Well with our five fab entertainment ideas, there is!

Signed Jenga Blocks

Who doesn’t love a good game? You might be thinking of the classic board games like Monopoly, Cluedo and Connect 4 but between you and us, there are many better modern board games that have been invented since. Even so, nothing beats a game of Jenga played with blocks that have been individually signed by each and every person at your wedding. You’ll need a sharpie to write properly on the wood, but trust us when we say the idea of having your future children play with the wedding Jenga blocks and find out what people thought about their parents on their wedding day is truly magical.

Graffiti Table

Buying the happy couple a wedding gift on their wedding day is tradition. Aside from the usual things like plates, a corkscrew and err, a candy floss machine, happily married newlyweds often tend to chuck a few slightly more expensive items on the wedding list just in case. Well we can tell you now that a table doesn’t have to be there because, their brand new table can be signed by everybody in attendance on their wedding day!

Not sure if you want a table scrawled upon by all of your guests? Alternatively you could hire a graffiti wall and have the resulting scribbles condensed down into a cool one sheet poster for your lounge or bedroom wall.

Photo Booth Album

Photo booths are still tremendously popular at weddings. What’s not to love? In this modern world of sharing every aspect of our lives online, having numerous wedding photos taken with props seems like a hugely fun idea. The problem is that they may just end up on a random Facebook album, never surfacing ever again. You can change all that with photo booth photo albums! Your guests’ photos are printed out in mere seconds after they take their pictures, before they affix the photo into a book and write a meaningful message beneath it. Lovely.

 

Royal Venues

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Still longing for a Royal wedding type venue?  Here are some more ideas on Wedding venues that will really wow your guests and make you feel like princess for the day…

Cambridge Cottage

The former royal residence of the Duke of Cambridge (no, not that one), Cambridge Cottage became a part of Kew Gardens in 1904. The building is suitable for civil ceremonies and dining, with a stunning drawing room and gallery spaces, where botanical artwork adorns the walls. Both of these rooms open out onto the Duke’s Garden a brilliant choice for wedding photographs or outdoor drinks.

Nash Conservatory

The Nash Conservatory is the oldest of the 19th century glasshouses at Kew and is of major historical and architectural importance. It didn’t actually begin life at Kew; the building was originally built in the grounds of Buckingham Palace before being move brick by brick to Kew Gardens in 1836! Featuring floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides, the building is served by an abundance of natural light and can hold up to 200 guests, depending on your requirements.

Princess of Wales Conservatory

A unique drinks reception venue for your wedding, the Princess of Wales Conservatory is the most complex glasshouse at Kew Gardens. Containing ten computer-controlled climatic zones, up to 200 guests are able to enjoy drinks and canapés whilst admiring the botanical wonders nearby. Will they be able to find the rare orchids or Chinese Water Dragons? A short stroll from the other Kew Venues, this is a fabulous celebration space for those who love nature!

Orangery

Perhaps the most popular venue at Kew from our perspective, the Orangery is a hugely popular building filled with citrus trees, that is just perfect for your wedding dinner and the dance that follows! We’ve provided a whole host of brilliant bands to play in this venue over the years, with the large, open plan design allowing a happy couple to customise the area to their delectation. High ceilings and arched windows help to add natural light to the space with spectacular views of Kew able to be enjoyed from the terrace in the summer months.

Sir Joseph Banks Building

Named after the famed botanist, the Sir Joseph Banks Building is a gorgeous modern wedding venue that can hold a maximum of 230 people and is also home to Kew’s Economic Botany Collection. Often hired in conjunction with the Orangery, the building is licensed for religious ceremonies and sports impressive large windows that provide vast swathes of natural light. Entrance to the venue is provided through the Atrium, which can be used to welcome wedding guests upon their arrival.

 

Share your wedding

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Wedding ceremonies are all about sharing. While the big day ultimately belongs to you, 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?

Photo opportunities

Posing for wedding photographs 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?

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?

Wedding entertainment

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?. 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!

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.

 

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.

 

The evening reception

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The evening wedding reception can be so important as this is when everybody comes together to really celebrate your big day. This is the moment where you can bring in your wider group of friends who maybe haven’t been part of the day as a whole, work colleagues, family members who are maybe more on the periphery, and really throw a party to remember!

Now there are many reasons why you would want to do this at your wedding. Of course it’s going to be a lot of fun for you and your guests and is a great way to end the night. However, one of the overlooked aspects of this is the importance of really making your mark and having that incredible defining moment for everyone to witness!

Live Music

Having a big party at the end of the night is a great statement and will really imprint a memory for your guests so they will never forget you or your celebration. To get the party started there are many styles of wedding entertainment you can look at depending on what atmosphere you want to create. At the very least there has to be music of some kind! Whether that’s via a professional DJ, a jazz band, a party band… there needs to be something there that people can enjoy listening to and dancing to.

Children’s Entertainment

Further to this, if you know that there will be plenty of children at the evening reception it can be a good idea to have something in the early part of the night to keep them entertained. Whether this is a face painter, a balloon modeller or something along those lines, it can be really helpful to have some children’s entertainment so your guests can mingle and chat amongst themselves. After all, there may be a few who haven’t seen each other in a while and could do with a good catch up!

Break The Ice

On the other hand, there may be guests who have never met each other before and it can be really helpful to hire some kind of wedding entertainment that will help break the ice and set the tone for a great party as the night goes on. Entertainers such as magicians and caricaturists can be really useful for this as they create a buzz. They get a small crowd involved and watching that gets people laughing together and helps them get acquainted.

Get Unique

There are also more unique ideas available that work really well such as fire performers, dancers, paparazzi photographers, LED musicians, celebrity lookalikes… anything really that fits your theme or that you feel will give everyone a party to remember. This is your chance to push the boat out and really end your wedding in style! Don’t be afraid to go for something a little different that people may not have seen before, a little bravery when booking and thinking outside the box can go an awful long way.

Dance floor tips

One of the biggest worries that couples have at this part of the day is if the dance floor is going to be full or not! But fear not, here are some tips and things to consider that will ensure your dance floor will be packed.

 

  • Book the right size band for the venue. You don’t want an acoustic duo on a massive stage, and in the same way a 12 piece band on a tiny stage!
  • Make sure you have designated dance floor. This sounds super obvious but you need to make it clear to guests where the dancing will occur! Also the size of the dance floor is important. Nothing too big to scare guests away!
  • If possible, have the bar in the same room. This goes a really long way as people will be back and forth grabbing drinks and can easily find their way back to the dancefloor!
  • Keep the lights low and watch the mayhem unfold. The brighter the lights on the dance floor, the more guests tend to stay away out of fear of being seen throwing crazy shapes!
  • Check your band’s setlist and see if the song choices are a good mix for everyone to sing along and get involved.
  • Lastly you need to lead by example! If you really want a full dance floor then round a couple of your best friends and drag them up there. Even recruit your own dancing posse of friends to help coerce people up! It’s guaranteed that once you get the ball rolling, there will have been plenty of others chomping at the bit ready to get up and cut some rug themselves! They just need that little nudge to not be the first…

We hope you manage to celebrate in style in with bags of fun, and booking the right wedding entertainment will really help to end your wedding with a bang!

 

A stress free affair

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As far as big life events go, marriage is often touted as one of the most stressful.  When planning a wedding it take alot of time and patience. It’s a once in a lifetime thing so it’s only natural to feel some weight on your shoulders during this time.

Whether it’s during the arduous planning stages or the task of keeping up appearances on the day, there’s a lot to think about.

When it comes to initially booking your wedding entertainment or live band it can seem a little overwhelming with so much choice and information to take in.

In a stressful time you need helpful and stress free people – which is exactly what the entertainment experts at Red Masque can recommend. With all the other stresses that go hand in hand when planning a wedding, why worry about your entertainment when someone else can take the pressure off you?

Hire a wedding organiser.

Wedding planning is an easy process is. Not only that, you’ll feel safe in the knowledge that you have booked a professional and an experienced act that you can trust. This is huge in controlling your stress levels on your wedding day! An act or band of this calibre are well versed in performing at weddings just like yours and are prepared for any eventuality.

Guest Babysitting

Consider the general mood and atmosphere on your day and how you can manipulate this at key times. Bored guests get fidgety and frustrated easily. This happens most often during the drinks reception which is a common lull. Why not get your entertainment to ‘babysit’ your guests whilst you’re away taking photos? Doing this means you don’t have to worry about your guests well-being in your absence. Acts like magicians and caricaturists are perfect for this and are sociable enough to be able to keep everyone happy!

When Things Don’t Go To Plan…

Anyone who has been involved in the planning of any wedding will know that for a wedding to go 100% to plan is unheard of. Entertainment is perfect for covering up any cracks or mishaps throughout the day that you might not expect. Minor hiccups that could have initially been a big deal are all of a sudden completely brushed off and forgotten about once everyone is smiling and having fun.

Toastmasters

Now if we’re talking about displacing stress on your wedding day, it’s about time that we mentioned the hero that we all need and deserve. Toastmasters. They will ensure a smooth and efficient running of your day, co-ordinating all elements of the day. This way you can relax entirely, knowing that your big day is in the safest of hands.

So it seems after all that it is possible to have a stress-free wedding. We wish you all the best of luck and remember to relax and take some time to enjoy your big day.

 

Wedding fair tips

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Wedding Entertainment Shouldn’t Make you Nervous!

Do not fear the word ‘entertainment’. There are always a few couples who see the word and aren’t entirely sure what it means; they have the music planned but… What else should there be? In short, nothing! You don’t have to have anything at your wedding. The most important part of your wedding is the vows; anything else is secondary. Wedding Entertainment refers to anything that will entertain on your big day from the band to the DJ to harp and so on and so forth.

Take your time..

This is thee number 1 rule! Take your time visiting each and every stall. Don’t just rush in and think that chatting to a wedding supplier means you have an obligation to buy! Every supplier in attendance knows that weddings are expensive and is simply on hand to make the process easier for you. We might hear from you later and we might not, that’s absolutely fine! The reasons suppliers attend these events is not just to meet potential clients, but also to help educate prospective brides and grooms and help them understand their small part of the wedding planning process. So take your time and enjoy the occasion.

We hope you’ve enjoyed these few tips for those attending their first wedding fair. We also highly recommend taking a business card and brochure from every supplier you meet so that you can refresh your mind after the fair from the comforts of your own home. There’s a lot to take in and remember, there’s nothing preventing you from attending another down the line.

 

That special dance

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There are a number of traditional moments on a wedding day. There’s walking down the aisle, the speeches, kissing the bride and many, many more. It’s fair to say that there is a lot to remember and that is never more true than with the first dance. Since all eyes are on you, here are our top tips to ensure your wedding dance goes without a hitch.

Take some dance lessons

You might not be the one to rush to the dance floor in a nightclub and you may not own a pair of dancing shoes, but at least attend a couple of sessions to get the basics. You might not become Michael Flatley overnight but you we think you’ll definitely pick up enough knowledge to not only scrape through the first round of Strictly, but also wow your guests!

Practice, practice, practice..

When doing the dishes, run through your steps. When out for a walk, practice your steps. When on the way to work, ponder through the movements in your mind. There’s nothing better than practicing your dance to ensure that it will be perfect on the day and if you’re lucky, the wedding venue might even allow you both in to see how much space you’ll have!

Pick something that’s danceable

It goes without saying that you should be sure to pick a song that is special to the two of you. Not only that but you also need to ensure that the lyrics are okay. Most important however, is making sure the song you pick is danceable. You might love heavy metal, but it doesn’t make for a good first dance wedding song. Here are the most popular ones and most come under three minutes and have a melodic tune. Take note and you should be fine!

Tell the wedding entertainment

If you have a live band rather than a DJ, it’s fair to assume the wedding band will be the ones playing your song on the day. You might not get a chance to rehearse with them, so do make sure that the song they’re learning is the version that you’re hoping to hear on the day. Many songs have numerous covers and it’d be terrible if they’ve learned the wrong one!

…And practice on the day

It’s all very well practicing from the comfort of your own home but we all know about nerves! Considering you might be performing your first dance in front of well over fifty people (and that would be on the small side), you might wish to run through it with your partner on the actual day. Can’t think of time when you’ll be alone? A wedding photographer is sure to allow you a couple of minutes to practice whilst waiting for the perfect shot.

Wear the right shoes

There’s no point practicing the dance in your slippers if you’re not going to be wearing them on the day. Unless you’re planning a sleepover themed wedding, we suspect you’ll be wearing some nice high heels or a smooth pair of black brogues. The thing about both these forms of footwear is they don’t tend to have a lot of grip… So make sure you’ve worn them during some of your rehearsals; nobody wants to fall over during their first dance!

 

Should I buy a hat?

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When planning a wedding outfit, stylish, dramatic and beautiful, fascinators are becoming a must-have addition to any look, and, for the modern wedding guest they are a stunning addition to this season’s trends. So what are your options? Here are some top tips to help you find the perfect fascinator.

Large, colourful hats have traditionally always been the desired choice for a mother of the bride or groom. A trend resulting in nothing less than a huge hat-off between wedding guests determined to impress with stunning headwear. Thank goodness then that the current trends have seen the fascinator come into its own.

What is a fascinator?

A dramatic headpiece often made from feathers, fabric, beads or flowers, attached to a headband or comb. They come in a huge range of shades and colours and tend to cost less than more traditional forms of headwear. You’ll find styles and shapes to suit every face shape or hair style.

Where to start?

A bigger shop is more likely to have a wide range of styles to choose from and it’s a good idea to take a swatch of your outfit along to match colours as well as possible.

Debenhams and Selfridges.

Online stores are a fantastic starting point and if you are willing to take a risk you may even pick up a bargain on e-bay. However, it’s always nicer and less risky to try before you buy.

Go with a trusted friend and a digital camera so that you can try on lots of different styles and then have some thinking time before deciding what looks best.

Think about your hairstyle and how your chosen fascinator will complement your hairstyle and colour.

Bespoke or budget?

If you have the budget then go for a bespoke fascinator, a made-to-order piece in your chosen style and colour. Alternatively search for one-off creations in smaller boutiques and shops.

Happy headwear hunting!