I wanted live music at the ceremony. I'm not exactly sure why, but this was important to me. However, musicians cost money! One of my friends plays the cello, and he makes a fortune paying weddings. He usually plays in a string quartet, and said they got 250 each. There was no way I wanted to spend a thousand dollars on music.
So I got a harpist! Beautiful music, and she only charged 200 dollars. She was able to play almost anything I wanted. If I had wanted to throw in an extra 100 dollars, she had a friend who would play flute with her. I find the harp a lovely instrument on its own, so I did not go for that.
We also hired my father's friend to sing a few songs during the ceremony. He charged 50 dollars, and accompanied himself on the piano. It was lovely.
The biggest savings for us was not hiring a DJ. I knew I did not want one, even if we had unlimited funds. I have a low tolerance for loud music, and most DJ's play much louder than I can handle. They are also very expensive, so here was a great way to cut costs! And while I did have a dance floor at my reception, I knew that my friends were not big dancers, so I was not expecting people to dance a lot. Not having a DJ would not be a hindrance in my wedding. Had I wanted a large dance par-tay, it may have been worth it to have one.
We spent months before our wedding compiling a mix of our favorite music on several CD's. We had our friends and family add their favorite music. There were about 8 CD's worth by the time it was done, and it was a lovely mix. The reception hall actually had (for free) speakers and a large CD player that we could use, but before we found that out, we had planned on renting one. Be sure to ask what your reception hall has for you to use- we avoided renting several things because we asked if the reception place could provide it. We were going to put the music on shuffle and leave it alone. Easy, right?
Here's was the one glich in our wedding- the one thing that went wrong. When you compile 8 CD's for music for your reception, make sure you know where you put them. When we got to the reception, we could not find them! We ripped apart everything we brought, and they just were not there! So our wedding reception music ended up being the CD's that our wedding party, our parents, and a few guests happened to have in their cars! It actually worked out pretty well, and we had a nice mix of music from people with different tastes. We never knew what song would be next! Nobody noticed that anything had gone wrong. My mother put this story in her Christmas letter, and a lot of people who had come to our wedding said that they never would have known if we had not told them. It was pretty funny!
The next day, we found the CD's in the glove compartment of the car.
Next Week: The Dress!
4 comments:
I love the idea of a harpist at a wedding. It's so classy and romantic!
Hee - I got married in a hotel lobby with a huge waterfall behind us. Which was so lovely, except that you couldn't hear a thing! Who needed music?
But then, we did everything backwards. After the reception, we had the rehearsal dinner, because JJ couldn't make it into town until late the night before! My in-laws insisted! And who's going to turn down Seafood Platters on the Gulf Coast when the in-laws have the checkbook out? Not me!
"Bad to the Bone" on harp sounds AWESOME!
JLP
AllFinancialMatters
Oh no! All that work! I know just what you mean. My wedding was unusual and the reception very casual. I was so busy I forgot to put on the music that I had compiled. Lesson number one in frugal weddings...delegate!
One thing I would do if I had to do the music all over again, is use a music program on the computer. I could have had the songs fade in and out on top of each other, like a radio station or a d.j. instead of coming with a pause between them like a normal CD.
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