You’re engaged, you’re excited, and you’re starting to plan your wedding! You know you need music, but you have no idea where to start. You don’t know any musicians, and you’re overwhelmed by all the choice available. Does that sound like you?
Well, I have good news for you – that’s what I’m here for! As your personal wedding music expert, my purpose is to take the stress out of your wedding music planning.
Here are my 5 steps to get you started with researching your wedding music:
Step 1: Think about what music you like, and what you want to achieve with your wedding music?
Here are some further questions to ask yourself to help figure those things out:
What types of music have you heard at other people’s weddings? Was there anything you liked that you want to replicate? Or would you prefer to surprise your guests with something completely different?
What styles of music do you both enjoy listening to? Are there any must-have songs or pieces of music that you love?
What style of wedding are you aiming for, and what is your venue like? Modern? Traditional? Or traditional with a modern twist?! How does the music you like fit with this? Does your venue have any recommendations, based on things that have worked there in the past?
These questions will help you start to narrow down your options.
Step 2: Search online for wedding music ideas.
Google has a wealth of information on wedding musicians. It can help you find individual artists’ websites as well as music agencies and blogs. It can be overwhelming, though.
The same is true of social media. Many artists and agencies have their own Instagram and Facebook pages where you can get a feel for their personalities. Some suggested hashtags to search for are:
#WeddingMusic
#WeddingMusicians
#WeddingMusiciansUK
#WeddingSong
#AisleSong
#DrinksReceptionMusic
Pinterest is a great place to gather ideas. But as a visual platform, many musicians don’t use it. Remember that music is an audio experience rather than a visual one. What it sounds like is the most important thing!
What Pinterest is good for is pointing you in the direction of blog posts. There you can get helpful hints and tips about booking your wedding music. I signpost all my blogs on my Pinterest profile to help couples find this useful information.
Other places to look for blog posts are dedicated wedding blog and directory sites such as Hitched, UK Bride and The English Wedding Blog. Local wedding blogs like Vicinity Weddings (covering Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Cambridgeshire) are also handy.
Having said that, I’ve observed that wedding bloggers often write endlessly about flowers and décor but seem to avoid writing about music. I suspect this is because they don’t have the language to describe music adequately. It can be hard to put sounds and feelings into words. But that’s one of the reasons why having music at your wedding is so important. It fills the spaces that words cannot reach!
Step 3: Use resources like Spotify and YouTube.
Spotify and YouTube are by far the best places to research wedding music. While other platforms focus on words and visuals, these two are all about the music.
On Spotify, search for playlists and albums of different styles of wedding music for inspiration. Classic FM has several brilliant compilation albums. Create your own playlists as you start to shortlist songs. I’ve put together a few playlists of my own to help couples, and I’m planning to launch several more this year. Follow me on Spotify to keep up with them!
Whilst Spotify is full of original tracks, YouTube is full of great covers. Use it to look up instrumental arrangements of your favourite songs. You can see some of my professional artists’ instrumental covers on my YouTube channel.
Many cover videos on YouTube are produced by keen amateurs, so the quality often isn’t brilliant. But they should give you a rough idea of what a song will sound like on different instruments.
As Spotify and YouTube are global platforms, nine times out of ten, the artists you find won’t be available to book in your area. Talk to a wedding music agency and send them links to what you’ve found. They should be able to suggest something similar that is available for you to book!
Step 4: What to beware of when narrowing down your options.
Of course, when you’re choosing a photographer or venue stylist, the visuals on their website and socials are essential. But I’m going to go against the grain here. If you’re looking for the best musicians, a pretty website isn't always the most important thing!
My view is that the best musicians are those who do a wide variety of work. That means playing with world-class orchestras, bands and opera companies, performing in tours, concerts and festivals, as well as playing at weddings and events. This breadth of work shows that the musicians are of the highest quality.
If a musician has invested heavily in expensive wedding marketing materials, the chances are they are doing a lot of weddings and not much else. Likewise, if they’re spending a lot of time making their Instagram look great, they’re not spending as much time practising and performing! To me, that’s a bit of a red flag.
It increases the chances you’ll end up with wedding music which sounds a lot like every other wedding you’ve ever been to. Nice, but predictable. Possibly overpriced too.
So, my advice is don’t always judge a book by its cover. Personal recommendations from musically-minded people are far more valuable. Ask your most musical friends for advice before booking. And if you don’t have any musical friends, contact a wedding music agency. They can help you see past the aesthetics and find the most impressive musicians.
Step 5: Make some enquiries.
Get in touch with some suppliers and let them know your date, venue and a rough idea of what you’re looking for. A supplier’s response to your enquiry will tell you a lot about them. Look for someone whose reply is quick, helpful and professional. If you’re still unsure what music you want, aim to find someone who asks you detailed questions about your wedding and tailors their advice to you. They should tell you honestly what won’t work for you, as well as what would.
Once you’ve started to narrow it down, that’s when you’ll want to ask suppliers for videos, photos, recordings and song lists. Those things will help you to make your final decisions!
As with any part of your wedding planning, consulting a professional can help. If you’ve got a wedding planner, they can do a lot of the work for you to make your life easier. (That’s the whole point of having a wedding planner!)
But even if you’re not using a wedding planner (or if your planner doesn’t have expertise in music), you can save yourself a lot of stress by working with Tailor Made Music Agency. I work with couples in London and South East England to help them find their perfect wedding music. I know exactly what questions to ask to take you from overwhelmed to focused. And I have all the contacts to make sure you get the very best musicians, within your budget.
If you’ve started your wedding planning journey and need help with wedding music, book a call with me today.
