How I Sorted My Wedding Music

So, another of my promised posts, and this time I wanted to talk about DIY music. Now before I go further, it’s worth noting that this is probably going to apply more to a civil ceremony rather than a church wedding, who more often than not have some kind of music instrument provisioned for you, even if you have to pay for someone to play it.

Wow, stock photos are so cheesy...

We’re getting married at the very awesome Nonsuch Mansion (yeah, we were there before it got super trendy. I am officially a trend setter). We’re having both the ceremony and reception at the venue which makes it super convenient, but it does mean we have to think about how we add music to the occasion.

We reviewed a few options:

Hiring a proper PA system

Pros: Great quality and you can link it into a music player / CD depending on the model you hire. Also, you get the added benefit of having microphones for the speeches later. You can also be confident of the sound carrying over a large area, if this is of concern for your particular venue.

Cons: Can be expensive, especially if you have any fancy tech, and if you need the oomph to cover a large area (like a marquee for example). Also, if like us you are doing the ceremony and breakfast in the same room, setting it up between the sessions can be a pain and is probably not something your venue will be able to do themselves.

Hiring Musicians

Pros: Hopefully great quality, but you can never be sure I suppose! Really give a sense of grand occasion to the proceedings, and you can easily move and utilise them for the ceremony, canapés and breakfast.

Cons: Depending on what musicians you go for, and for how long you have them, can potentially end up being pretty expensive.

Our Solution:

When searching for potential music for a first dance on Spotify, I came across the rather amazing Vitamin String Quartet. These a guys specialise in renditions of music, from all genres, in the string quartet format. Michael Jackson I hear you ask? Yup. Foo Fighters? Yup again. Iron Maiden? (you get where this is going)

So, we’ve bought ourselves a rather nice ipod dock, and downloaded a playlist of all the tunes from Amazon.co.uk that we want to be played. I think it worked out at about £35 for 2 hours’ worth of songs! It will cover off the ceremony, after-ceremony and wedding breakfast! Result.

I highly recommend thinking outside of the box. I’m pleased that we did as we now have a setlist of songs that will bring a smile to people’s faces when they hear familiar songs done a very very new way!

STD

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