Because of COVID-19, weddings have now changed from 250 guests to 10-50 guests. Along with your gut count, many other aspects have been affected, including music. As you know from attending many of your friends’ weddings in years past, music is one of the most important aspects of any wedding. Just because you’re doing a micro-wedding shouldn’t mean that you have to sacrifice the quality of your music. If you think of your micro-wedding as being a much smaller version of your traditional wedding, you can still hold onto what’s most important to you. Our music company has a great deal of experience with performing at a wide variety of micro-weddings. We’re also the only music company that provides you with free live streaming so that you can share your wedding day with those you love!
Let’s talk about the various aspects of your wedding and how you can include music.
- Ceremony music: Since your ceremony is usually relatively smaller to begin with, you can still include the same high-quality professional ceremony musicians as you may have for a full-sized wedding. Our music company offers a classic duo, trio, or string quartet. You’ll be able to work with our ceremony music director, Alex Koffman, to select the perfect music for each part of your ceremony. You can use shorter versions of songs since you may have a limited bridal party. You might even choose a completely separate song for the bridal party. The most important thing is that you pick the music most personal and meaningful to you both. Even if it’s a non-traditional ceremony song, we’re more than happy to learn it for you!
- Cocktail music: The purpose of cocktails is to create something a lot more relaxing in comparison to the more formal ceremony. You and your guests should feel very relaxed and comfortable. We offer a solo piano or jazz trio. Since these are separate musicians from those that play during your ceremony, there will be a smooth transition from ceremony to cocktails.
- Dinner music: This is likely where you’ll see the biggest changes to your wedding, depending on the number of guests you’re expecting. Instead of having a 20-person bridal party, you may want to introduce just the two of you or not have any introductions at all. As far as toasts, this is entirely your choice. If you wanted to reduce the number of toasts, I would limit it to parents, best man, and maid of honor. You may or may not be including a served meal as part of your wedding. It will have to be based on the schedule you choose. Your venue and catering company will guide you through the various options based on your number of guests. Be sure to consult with them.
- Dancing music: Since you have reduced the number of guests at your wedding due to health risks involved with groups of people dancing together, this will of course need to be adjusted as well regarding the size of the dance floor and your comfort level. We can perform with our micro-wedding band, which is a male vocalist, saxophone player, and piano player. Or, depending on the size of your stage, up to a 7-piece group can perform. As with all of the music for our micro-wedding, it’s important to choose songs carefully since you’ll have less opportunities for dancing than you would at a full-sized wedding. You should absolutely do a first dance, mother-son dance, and father-daughter dance. There’s a possibility that you could separate dancing into families or couples dancing together with 10 feet of space between them. You’ll need to check with your venue to see what their options are.
- The sound system: Depending on how many guests you’re expecting, you may or may not need a sound system. If you do, make sure that it is appropriate for the size of your venue. We can guide you through that process. If you’re having just the two of you or up to 10 guests, you may not need a sound system at all.
- Live streaming: Even though you can only include a small number of your guests, you can still share your wedding with all of them. To hire a separate company to do live streaming can often run between $1,000 and $6,000. We provide it for you free of charge when you hire us to play the music for your wedding! The video streaming is hosted on a specific website and only the family and friends that you invite will be able to view your celebration, which is much better than posting it on a public platform like Facebook. You’ll get great sound and video quality.
Micro-weddings can be a wonderful and meaningful way to celebrate getting married. There are no specific rules that all brides and grooms must follow. Just like how we’ve had to adjust our lives because of the virus, couples are finding their own ways to make their weddings meaningful, authentic, and even fun! We would love to speak with you to find the perfect music and schedule that’s right for you. We started our music company 20 years ago based on the idea that everyone should get a personalized wedding based on who they are as a couple. Switching from a full-sized wedding to a micro-wedding shouldn’t change that philosophy at all. Choose what feels right for you, and we’ll be here to help you every step of the way.
