Wedding Ceremony music. Quartet, trio, duo, solo, DJ?

[Gwyn]

So I am at a kind of corssroads with my music. we were thinking of getting a string quartet to play for ceremony and cocktail hour BUT i have been thinking and would really like for my processional to be the Glasgow love theme and the recessional to be the PM love theme (Yes, I loved the movie love actually. Our first dance is "turn me on" by Nora which is also inthat film).

Anyhow, ive heard PM loves theme done with a string quartet but never the glasgow (just piano and guitar).

How are you all doing your music?

For those of you that had music not by a live performer how did you work it? DId you set up a tape deck? have a DJ? what did you do about starting and stopping and timing for walking down the aisle? How did it sound to you? Any comments from guests?

 

[Nocturnius]

There were a few important songs to me, all of which were better performed by a pianist. So I opted for one.

Everyone loved her, she was great. The bridal party entered to "From Where I Am" by Enya, I entered to "All I Ever Wanted" by Jim Brickman, and our recessional was to "100 Years" by Five For Fighting. We didn''t use any classical selections, which worked well for our personalities I think.

My friend had a tape desk at his wedding, manned by a friend. I really personally wouldn''t recommend it. It was very choppy, there was a lot of fast forward-rewind going on that was audible while guests were waiting for the ceremony to start, and the volume didn''t go loud enough for everyone to hear it. It probably would have been worth it to splurge a bit on a live musician.

Also, some DJs will do the ceremony. I''m sure that a hired DJ is better at melding the music together than some good buddy. DJs usually review all the music they''re supposed to play and make sure they pick the best parts of the songs (example: we used "Renegade" by Styx for the garter toss, but the first thirty seconds of the song are totally boring a cappela singing. So he reviewed all of the songs before the wedding, and knew to start the song when the actual music starts.) If you''re hiring a DJ anyway, you might want to look into that as well. I don''t think guests really care if there''s live music or a DJ, as long as there is music.

 

[doodle]

Date: 8/29/2008 7:58:28 PM
Author:Gwyn
So I am at a kind of corssroads with my music. we were thinking of getting a string quartet to play for ceremony and cocktail hour BUT i have been thinking and would really like for my processional to be the Glasgow love theme and the recessional to be the PM love theme (Yes, I loved the movie love actually. Our first dance is ''turn me on'' by Nora which is also inthat film).


Anyhow, ive heard PM loves theme done with a string quartet but never the glasgow (just piano and guitar).


How are you all doing your music?


For those of you that had music not by a live performer how did you work it? DId you set up a tape deck? have a DJ? what did you do about starting and stopping and timing for walking down the aisle? How did it sound to you? Any comments from guests?

GWYN I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My FI and i picked ben folds'' "the luckiest" and glasgow love theme as processional music, but could NOT find a recessional piece we liked. we picked glasgow because the movie love actually had significance between the two of us, but for some reason, the PM love theme never even occurred to me as a recessional until you mentioned it--as soon as i played it, my FI started grinning, so thanks a billion because (only 41 days before our wedding) we FINALLY have a recessional and can make the danged programs!!! sorry for the threadjack--i was just too friggin'' happy to not gush! needless to say by my reaction, but i love the idea, haha!

 

[Gwyn]

Date: 8/30/2008 5:45:25 PM
Author: doodle

GWYN I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My FI and i picked ben folds' 'the luckiest' and glasgow love theme as processional music, but could NOT find a recessional piece we liked. we picked glasgow because the movie love actually had significance between the two of us, but for some reason, the PM love theme never even occurred to me as a recessional until you mentioned it--as soon as i played it, my FI started grinning, so thanks a billion because (only 41 days before our wedding) we FINALLY have a recessional and can make the danged programs!!! sorry for the threadjack--i was just too friggin' happy to not gush! needless to say by my reaction, but i love the idea, haha!

Glad I could be of some assistance

So, you would be the one to ask then, how are you planning on having those songs played?

Glasgow sounds best on the piano but the PM love theme really needs some brass. I think it sounds a little less grand without the horns... or trumpets or whatever it is in there.

 

[doodle]

well, i''m not much help on this one because we''re just having our dj play the original piece from the soundtrack because i''m cheap.

if you''re hiring musicians to play it, couldn''t you just get them a copy of the sheet music and ask them for a preview? i found several websites of string quartets that included both glasgow and pm on their repertoire, but no sites that had a link where you could listen to a sample, unfortunately. maybe you could google for it and email one of those sites to see if they had a recording that wasn''t posted to their site or something? i''m sorry i''m not more help, and best of luck!!!