It’s Wedding Season in the Bay Area! How to Choose a Musician

No wedding is complete without the music. But, how do you choose the right music and musician?

An important factor in choosing your music is the setting for your wedding ceremony. Take into account the size of the location, the style of the venue and what the facility offers. If you are outdoors, will your musician need an extension cord or will he have to play acoustically? If you are indoors at a church, find out whether it already has an organ or piano. Even if the church does have a piano or organ, you might decide to go with a solo guitarist or string ensemble. If you are considering vocalists, you may want to ask them if they’ve performed in the space and if it’s appropriate for their performance.

What songs should you choose? First, ask your vocalist or accompanist for suggestions. Have them play or sing that song for you. Secondly, ceremony music typically includes processional, recessional and consecration. For a ceremony in a religious setting, you might want to go the traditional route with classical music with a soloist, duet or trio (guitar, strings, flute, woodwinds, etc). For the reception music, you may opt to have pop songs and so hiring a DJ may be more appropriate. If you have a larger budget, you can choose live music, such as a solo guitarist or a band specific to your wedding theme.

Songs are extremely personal. If you want something romantic, you can opt for Spanish guitar. Guitar is also great alternative to piano for complementing vocalists. For example, I recently accompanied two sopranos for songs traditionally accompanied by piano: the processional, excerpt from “Sous le dôme épais” by Leo Delibes, and the lighting of the unity candles, excerpt from “Révons, c’est l’heure” by Jules Massenet.

Before deciding whether the songs suggested by your musicians are really what you want, you should go to a store that sells sheet music and songbooks and browse in the wedding section. Or you can also log onto Apple i-Tunes and listen to clips of the songs.