wedding music

Ceremony Music – Strike a Pleasing Chord

 in Music / Wedding Ceremony / Wedding Rehearsal / Weddings  tagged ceremony music / music professionals / recorded ceremony music / wedding music by

Ceremony music can strike a pleasing chord and enhance your wedding ceremony, if done well. However, it can often be the weak link in ceremony planning and result in a noticeably discordant note in an otherwise beautiful ceremony. If you hire live musicians with experience performing for wedding ceremonies, or if you hire a professional DJ, you can be confident that the music you select will be a lovely accompaniment to your ceremony.

As you’re planning your ceremony you might encounter a cost cutting suggestion of using recorded music played from a personal device. This can be a good suggestion if carefully implemented, but too often leads to disappointing results. With all the technology available at our fingertips today it seems like having a friend or family member run your music from a phone would be a simple and inexpensive option. But a number of pitfalls await this decision.

  1. Having someone run the ceremony music from your phone can result in them not knowing where the music is located, or what order to play the songs in. Worst of all, the device can lock during the ceremony with no way for the person to unlock it for the recessional at the end of the ceremony.
  2. You’ll need to have your device connected to speakers, and not any speaker will do. You need to be able to have the music played loud enough that the wedding party can hear it and know when to enter and leave the ceremony space.
  3. The person running the music needs to know how to fade out a song, cycle it to play again, and switch songs quickly to support a processional with multiple music selections.
  4. If you’re going to rely on any sound system components from your ceremony venue you need to take the music device there in the weeks preceding the ceremony to ensure that the proper cables and speakers are available. This can help avoid a situation where it’s time to begin the ceremony and no music is available.
  5. Finally, you will want to have the person running your music attend your rehearsal so they can practice the processional and recessional in your ceremony space. This will give you a final chance to correct any problems with your music plan.

The best way to ensure that your ceremony music strikes a pleasing cord is to rely on professionals for either live or recorded music. If you make another choice, invest the time and attention to detail to maximize the chances of success.

Music Strikes a Sour Note

 in Ceremony / Music / Weddings  tagged ceremony music / music / wedding / wedding ceremony / wedding music by

Music strikes a sour note in your wedding ceremony when it distracts from the ceremony experience instead of enhancing it. In the best of all worlds, your musical selections start and end on cue, are played at an optimal volume, and reflect you as a couple. Ceremony music can be of any genre, can be offered live or recorded, and can go seriously wrong.

My best advice to you is to hire professionals. Whether that is an experienced DJ playing recorded music or live professional musicians, the advice holds. Music is the most common part of the wedding ceremony to go wrong in my experience, and when it does, everyone cringes. Here are just a few of the experiences I’ve seen during ceremonies:

– In one ceremony, the couple had a friend who was a talented violinist, and they asked him to play for their ceremony. He arrived very close to the ceremony start time, and set up his equipment. Yes, the violinist had electronic tracks recorded that accompanied his live performance. All this could have been wonderful if he had an experienced assistant who managed the electronics while he focused on his violin. Instead, there were long, awkward pauses waiting for him to begin the accompaniment and then a rush while he tried to position his violin and join in. The long pause before the recessional began left the couple standing in front of their guests, ready to leave the ceremony space, but without any music.

– In other cases music strikes a sour note when friends or family are asked to provide the ceremony music from an iPod/iPad or similar device. I’ve seen these devices trying to play music loud enough to be heard beyond the front 2 rows. They forgot to bring speakers. I’ve seen these devices lock between the beginning and end of the ceremony with the person not knowing the password to unlock it. I’ve seen devices that were tested and connected to bluetooth speakers 30 minutes before the ceremony, only to have them time out and refuse to reconnect for the actual ceremony.

– And maybe the worst was the teenager asked to run the ceremony music from a device in the minutes before the ceremony. She didn’t know which songs were for which parts of the ceremony, and we heard snippets of each of them as the wedding party entered and she tried to figure it all out. When the recessional song (“Signed, Sealed,Delivered”) played as the bride entered, I knew it was going to be a memorable ceremony, and not in a good way.

You can prevent the situation where music strikes a sour note during your ceremony by hiring knowledgeable, experienced people. If you have hired a DJ for your reception it is usually a relatively small incremental expense to have them cover your ceremony, too. If you are hiring live musicians, make sure they’ve played for weddings before, and see if one of them can attend your rehearsal to be clear on where your musical selections fit in the ceremony. If you decide to take a chance and have a family member or friend handle your recorded music, make sure you’ve gotten the needed equipment and that they attend rehearsal and actually play the music as you want them to for the ceremony. Music can be a wonderful addition to your ceremony. Make sure you plan appropriately so you avoid the situation where your music strikes a sour note on your wedding day.