Top Tips for Engaging a Sophisticated, Classical String Quartet
For your wedding ceremony music, string quartets represent amazing value. Compared to most other groups of musicians they are relatively inexpensive yet each of them is almost certainly highly skilled and classically trained. But that doesn’t mean their music is stuck in the past, many quartets these days incorporate modern popular songs into their repertoire as well as jazz, great show tunes and classic pop such as Beatles songs.
Just take a look and listen to ‘Love Actually’ the movie to see just how string quartet hire can, make your ceremony a fabulously sublime experience for everyone.
Long established on the top of the wish list for wedding ceremony music, string ensembles (whether trios, quartets or larger) deserve, for the most part, their place as the cream of wedding instrumental music. The flexibility of four instruments playing different parts can evoke a wide range of emotions and create an atmosphere of polished sophistication through to cheeky cheerfulness depending on how you want to remember your wedding.
How to Start Off Your Ceremony in Style with Music
It’s usual to ask your string quartet to play a calming selection of tunes to welcome your guests to the ceremony, into the church if you’re having a religious ceremony. We’ve noticed that most guests don’t go in and sit down until the last ten minutes if they can help it, so having your wedding musicians playing longer than 20 minutes before the ceremony time is a waste of your time and theirs. Obviously brides will sometimes be late but there’s nothing better than fine classical music to keep the guests in a happy mood while she gets ready.
Wedding March Music – Your Grand Entrance!
The processional or bridal march is one of the key moments of the whole wedding so the music you chose should reflect very much who you are and how you feel about one another. To keep with tradition you might want “The Bridal March” (remember there are at least two quite different tunes of the same name by Wagner and Mendelssohn) though there are wealth of suitable classical tunes from “Canon in D” to “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” and Handel’s “Water Music”. There are also many current ‘classics’ such as “Songbird” that a string ensemble can play to such an effect. Don’t go for anything very long or that takes more than a few bars to get going since, unless you’re getting married at a large venue, it only takes the bride a matter of seconds to get from the door and into position beside the groom though it might seem long minutes to you!
Hymns – No Problem!
A quartet worth its salt should be able to accompany any hymns you’ve chosen but remember that no religious music is allowed during a civil or humanist ceremony.
Signing the Register
The next important event is the signing of the register, this can be quite short or very long depending on how much your photographer and guests take it as a photo opportunity. I’ve seen the signing take as long as 15 minutes so your musicians need to have a long as well as a short strategy for this key musical interlude during which it’s best to choose fairly calming or light background wedding music to contrast with the next segment.
Your Joyful Recessional
The recessional, when the bride and groom first step out as newlyweds is a time of celebration, triumph, dignity and fun depending upon your characters. This is when tunes like the Delibes “Flower Duet” come into their own, or “Fly Me To The Moon”, or even “Flying Without Wings”.
Continue the Mood Through Your Champagne Reception
Cocktail Music - If you think about it you’ll see how important it can be to have good background music for your champagne or cocktail reception. This is the first time that many of your guests will have met each other and calming live music will set them at ease and help new friendships to be formed. Again a string quartet suits the purpose beautifully whether you’re lucky with the weather and can have your music and drinks outside or play it safe and hold your reception indoors. This is when the wide variety of possible music styles comes in to their own, there should be something to please almost everyone while maintaining that elegance and sophistication that a quality quartet can bring to your wedding day.
To sum it all up ….
String quartets are a versatile and effortless option for your wedding ceremony music. Most will play a good range of styles from the hard core classics right through to chart hits (but always ask them first). They’ll set the mood for a fabulous day and can take you from pre-ceremony right through to the end of your photo session.
Enjoy …. Dee
