We know that musically minded friends often want to contribute something personal to your wedding ceremony. This is great, and we welcome this! Find out how you can ask your musical friends to join forces with us, and some things to watch out for.
We have accompanied vocalists, flautists, pianists and guitarists who have been friends of the couple.Our main consideration when joining forces with someone else is this:
Are they comfortable to perform with us with limited rehearsal time?
Is their musical choice straightforward enough that we can play together on the day easily?
Some examples:
Example: The groom’s sister sang ‘Joy of Jesu Man’s Desiring’ while we acommpanied her. We had a brief discussion in the weeks running up to the wedding to discuss how her version compared to our version of the music, agreed on the structure for the performance (i.e. verse 1, chorus, verse 2, end) and checked that the key signature was the same in our two versions of the music
Example: The bride’s friend wanted to play a flute solo during the service while we acommpanied her. We recommended Elgar’s Chanson De Matin, which she was familiar with. We sent her the first violin part which she learnt in time for the ceremony. We performed the piece with the flute replacing our first violin.
Example: The groom’s brother wanted us to provide the string backing for Greenday’s “Good Riddance: Time of Your Life”which he wanted to perform during the wedding reception. We determined that the structure would match exactly that of the recorded version by Greenday, and in the same key. We transcribed the strings part and performed the song (without rehearsal) on the day.
We’re happy to join forces with musical friends at your request, so long as they are happy with having limited rehearsal time on the day.