Freak Music, an Edinburgh, Scotland based agency, has been supplying music to weddings UK wide for over ten years. I asked Chris Mackinnon, their Chief scout and blogger for a lowdown on booking acts for a modern UK wedding. Here’s what he told us…
Scotland: The Land of Kilts, Glens, and Castles
Ask ten people what’s the most important part of a typical wedding and you’ll likely get ten different answers. Ask the same people what type of music goes down best at weddings and you’ll get another ten. There’s so much to organize at modern weddings that anything that takes the pressure off the organizers is always to be welcomed. According to a recent survey conducted by Bride & Groom magazine, when couples were asked what were their priorities, during the wedding planning the staple answers were their attire, the actual venue and the catering. The wedding entertainment is almost an afterthought. But, in the same survey they also found that 72% of brides said they’d have spent more time on choosing the entertainment and even more surprising, they found almost 100% of couples, when questioned after the event, would have spent more on the entertainment. I’m no statistician but I think that’s quite a high percentage.
For the ceremony, and for the signing of the register and initial afternoon drinks, the most popular option remains classical acts. String quartets, (or trios and duos for that matter) harpists and classical guitarists are always in demand for this part of the day and can really set the mood. They are always happy just to do a few hours, or even less if required to suit not only the event but your budget too.
Classical acts are the most popular choice for the ceremony.
For the evening’s entertainment, it’s always best to remember there’s no such thing as a ‘standard wedding band’ and we do get asked to supply such a fictional act from time to time. There’s a lot of variables to factor in before you start looking. If the guest list is around the hundred mark, and many weddings are these days, you’re likely looking at a pretty wide age range too. To that end you need a band with a wide repertoire and that can happily and confidently play in a number of genres. Swing bands that will morph in to pop bands at the drop of a fedora are always good for this and will suit any old uncle who wants to hear, and hopefully dance to the Rat Pack era hits of his youth whereas younger siblings and cousins will be keen to hear a bit of Gaga. Although perhaps Bad Romance should be avoided given the circumstances.
Swing bands are fun for everyone.
Another change we’re starting to notice is tribute acts being booked for weddings. It seems to be generally younger couples looking to have almost a novelty wedding and will book say, a Grease tribute act, or even a general purpose all round eighties act. Not unknown is the odd high-energy rockabilly act getting a wedding booking too.
There is another recent trend we’re extremely pleased to report on, and to explain, here’s a recent example: one of our pipers was called in to service to help out a romantic young man for a half hour slot in the grounds of Scone Palace, one of Scotland’s grandest buildings. Nothing unusual in a piper being hired in this part of the world obviously but this wasn’t for a wedding, a drinks reception or anything like that. The client requested the piper to play as he proposed to his girlfriend. Thankfully she said yes. We’d love to think this is something that is only going to increase in popularity as we’re all hopeless romantics here at Freak music…
