Why have a musician at your wedding?
At the Wellbeing Farm in Bolton August ‘18
So here’s the ultimate question - why do I need or even want a musician playing at my wedding? The answer, I suppose, is entirely personal but here are my reasons as to why it’s so important:
It’s personal - a musician will play the music you want at exactly the time you need it to happen. Fairly important when you’re walking down the aisle.
A musician can round off a song early if you walk quickly or extend and improvise if you walk slowly or are delayed (last minute dress alterations or you can’t find the bridesmaid etc). A song on CD can’t know where you are at a certain time or cut a chorus in half for example.
Your guests will appreciate the fact you have a musician there. No guest ever said to a staff member of a venue, “Oh, I loved the way you pressed play on that iPod.”
A musician not only works from years of practise on their chosen instrument but also works by experience to adapt to the situation. I remember one ceremony where a guest gave a reading during the ceremony of a passage from Winnie the Pooh. I played the theme tune soon after even though it wasn’t on the list of songs given to me and you should have seen the smiles from the guests…
It’s very easy to give a musician a last minute change of plan (although it may do their blood pressure no good). I once had a change of bridal entrance song on the morning of a wedding - good thing I checked my emails that Sunday 😉.
We’re really nice people. The fact that we’ve locked ourselves away for hours every day to practise means we’re very happy for any human interaction whatsoever.
We smell nice.
I ran out of decent points two points ago.
Joking aside, it really does make a massive difference. The cost can sometimes be a barrier for some but there is no price you can put on your friends and relatives talking about what you had at your wedding for days, weeks, months and even years after. I’ve had numerous testimonials over the years saying “People are still talking about the music three months later!” and like I say, there’s no price you can put on that. Some may resent paying money for someone to “just play guitar” but you’re not paying someone to just play guitar. You’re paying for their expertise, their professionalism, their 50 or so testimonials that say “he played at my wedding and he was amazing”, the peace of mind knowing that you have someone who does it as a job and not your cousin Keith who “plays a bit”.
if you need any more convincing then send me a note through my booking page and we can chat about it. It won’t cost you anything, even if you’re not looking to book me I will do my best to convince you to book that violinist or harpist…..as long as it’s not Keith.