When we think about wedding music, we probably all have a rather traditional idea of what would constitute appropriate music. In most cases, people tend to immediately think of organists, bagpipers and maybe even string quartets and, whilst it is true that these types of musicians have an important role to play during many wedding ceremonies or receptions, it is increasingly the case that the happy couple make much more individual choices about the type of music and musicians that they feel will make their day memorable.
This is particularly true of musicians who are booked for later in the day, at receptions, and for evening entertainment that couples will often choose musical genres that mean something special to both them and their wedding guests. As a result, it is not unusual these days to find high-quality soul bands, a cappella groups and swing bands getting most of their bookings from people getting married.
Of course, one of the biggest problems for people organising wedding music is actually finding not only musicians who fit the bill, but musicians who play to a decent enough standard. After all, someone’s wedding day is supposed to be one of the most memorable events of their lives and they don’t want it spoiling by a musical act that is, at best, mediocre and, at worst, remembered for all the wrong reasons. Ideally, it would be great if you could deal with a music agency that focused on wedding music alone and whose list of acts included only musicians with a proven track record of delivering great entertainment at weddings. In fact, what we’d all really like is to be able to book the same acts that play at celebrity weddings because, generally, they’ve been booked by someone who is an expert at wedding planning and who can’t afford to get it wrong.
If you look around, particularly on the Internet, there are several online music booking agencies, but they tend to be generalists and not wedding specialists. To be honest, we were only able to find one credible booking agency or musicians that specialises in weddings. Fortunately, the company, I Do Music, appears to be run by a team with lots of experience in the music industry and the acts you can book was certainly from the top flight, even though we were surprised at the small premium compared to the usual local acts that typically perform at weddings.