Branding Your Wedding: Hear
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Continuing with the branding series….
There are a few things I would change about our wedding, but the music is the one detail the husband and I planned out meticulously. While our guests were being seated, the sun streamed through the chapel windows. A close friend sang and plucked his guitar. After our grandmothers and mothers were seated, my brother sang Your Love is Extravagant while our friend sang harmony. My maids and I walked down the aisle to Divine Romance. The simple purity of the guitar with their voices was amazing, and exactly what we wanted. During the reception we had a bluegrass trio play. We love music, and we wanted our wedding to reflect our tastes. We definitely didn’t want a DJ playing anything remotely close to Flo Rida (no matter how addictive it is). Why? Because it didn’t fit with the overall brand of the wedding. We had a simple, sweet ceremony and a barn reception. A DJ didn’t seem to fit with the overall picture.
Brides sometimes forget how important the music is. Too often they leave it up to the DJ to play the party music. So how do you help the music reinforce the brand?
Do you want your wedding to be a celebration? Pick fun upbeat music, a la Love Actually. Do you want your ceremony to feel as dramatic as November Rain? Use piano with the strings! Do you want an old Hollywood feel? Go heavy on the strings and horns. Do you want sweet melancholy? Pick a pure clean voice with a string guitar.
So what music would I pick for our classic wedding? I think something similar to the Hope Floats soundtrack (a favorite of both E and I). Keep the Trisha Yearwood and Sheryl Crow for the ceremony. Play Lyle Lovett, Gillian Welch, Jonell Moser and Deana Carter during the cocktail and dinner hours. Pump up the Rolling Stones, Garth Brooks, The Mavericks, Whiskeytown and Bryan Adams for the dancing. All pure Americana.
A.
Since we are doing the southern thing, we are trying to get gospel singers for the ceremony. So fitting of our location! You have such great ideas for branding your ceremony!
You mean Ryan Adams ;) That sounds like a fun wedding!
eastside – ah, you’ve obviously never heard “when you love someone” by BRYAN. it’s phenomenal. :)
and who is ryan anyway? would i like him? clearly i’m old and out of touch with the music scene! HA.
Forgive me, I never saw “Hope Floats.” But I certainly know who Bryan Adams is. (Careful, he’s Canadian!) Ryan was a member of Whiskeytown….
I won’t be so quick to comment next time :P
you never saw hope floats?! oh girl, you’re missing out!
ryan was a member of whiskeytown? OK i have to listen to his stuff. i heart whiskeytown. wither, i’m a flower is one of my favorite songs!
Ryan Adams is an alt-country rocker. Better musician than Bryan. Heartbreaker is my favorite album (an early one). Some of his more recent stuff is getting play on TV — you’ve probably heard him and you don’t even know it.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE “Hope Floats”. You know, it was set and filmed here in Texas…. ;-)
For our ceremony, I would like to hire an accoustic guitar player – very simple and classic. Upstairs for the reception we’re planning on using LOTS of Michael Buble (a favorite of ours) and other similar artists. During the “cocktail” time and dinner – it will be all that type of music. But once the dancing starts, there will be some country mixed in too, cuz ya’ know, we’re from Texas.
Too bad we won’t be playing Flo Rida at our wedding… that IS a catchy and addictive tune!! But I just don’t think bumping and grinding in front of granny is appropriate.
our wedding in october is going to be a combination of (hopefully) really fancy and then a bit rustic, which makes the music hard but i think we figured it out. we are having a violin and a guitar for the ceremony … keeping it simple, and then a four piece combination during dinner. then when the dancing starts so does our 12 piece band. they are pretty old country which is just fine with both of us, however we are making an ipod playlist and have agreed to slightly longer breaks for the band members so there will be some current/non country dance options.
I completely agree with this post and love this series on branding…
We spent hours thinking through the music for our wedding; I am not sure if we really selected it to fit a ’style or brand’ but more to fit us so hopefully it translates to fit the style!!! We will see!
