Acoustic Music At Your Wedding
Photo by Sweet Ice Cream Photography
Hey there. The Bohemian aesthetic is not just a fashion style. It is a love of art, ideas, and connection. You put so much energy into the visual aesthetic of your event, but the thing that makes an event magic is the way people FEEL while they are celebrating. Live Acoustic music is a very powerful tool to bring spirit to your celebration. As a musician, I have been a part of SO MANY beautiful celebrations, and have collected some really great ways to add moments your guests will remember. Of course, everyone thinks of reception music, the after dinner dance party, but here are some other ways to use live acoustic musicians in your celebration day. Here are 5 ideas for using Acoustic music at your Bohemian Wedding, besides the after dinner hootenany.
1. Pre - Ceremony - Have an Acoustic duet or trio play gentle acoustic music as guests are arriving. Classical and mellow Old-Time are great for this! I like to keep it instrumental here to help guests feel comfortable saying hello to each other before things get started.
2. Ceremony - Use Acoustic Musicians For The Processional, A Ceremony Moment, and The Recessional. Classical music is always lovely, but old-time music also works well here. There are SO MANY beautiful instrumental songs, and this can be a great place to introduce your guests to something they haven't heard before. Pachabel's Canon is great, I am happy to play it, but the musicians you hire will know so many songs that would work.
3. Ceremony Audience Participation! This one is SO GREAT for getting the spirit moving early in your celebration! There are so many ways to do this, it deserves it's own post, but one example could be that you have your musicians teach your guests a simple chorus to a well known song ( i.e. "All You Need Is Love" ) during the pre-ceremony and then all of your guests sing together for your recessional.
4. Cocktail Hour - Have a duet or trio of acoustic musicians play for a mingling hour. This is a great place for some more upbeat instrumental music - old-time, bluegrass, and Gypsy Swing are a few genres that are unexpected and HIP for your cocktail hour.
5. Pre- Dinner group dance - As you may have guessed I am a huge fan of mandatory (gently) group participation at weddings! I need to write a whole post on why I think this is important. A pre-dinner group dance can really break the ice and make people feel connected to each other. I have seen the Hora dance and square dances both work magic on an event.
Don't settle for cookie cutter music. You put so much into your wedding, make the music as artful as all the other details. Let me know what you think!