Imagine that you spent months preparing for your wedding day. But something goes wrong with the music during the ceremony. Instead of the music accenting a beautiful ceremony, the problem diverts attention and blemishes the moment.
There are many things that can go wrong with your wedding and your wedding music. Fortunately, many of them are preventable.
One way to prevent many problems is to simply plan ahead. A great tool for helping use is my church wedding music planning checklist that comes with my Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music. I also provide plenty of helpful advice here that keeps you informed.
You can get advice from people you know that have been through this before or from experts, including your church musician, your church’s wedding coordinator and others.
My advice for you today is in the form of two music-related stories of wedding disasters and how they could have been prevented.
Story #1
Summary: No one set up a microphone for the ceremony’s vocal soloist. She turned out to be a quiet singer. In fact, she sang so quietly, no one could hear her. What should have been a beautiful moment during the ceremony turned into a really awkward moment.
Prevention: It seems obvious that the solution was simply to set up a microphone. But there’s more to it than that.
The problem here is that no one knew the singer needed a microphone, not that one wasn’t set up. She was a quiet singer. Someone should have known this!
It’s critical to know what each musician needs to successfully perform. Many professional musicians will let you know exactly what they need. Others may or may not. You can almost guarantee that young or inexperienced musicians will not let you know. You need to find out if they don’t tell you.
Once you know what is needed, take care of it or pass the request along to the appropriate person, in this case, contacting the church to see if there is an amplification system that could be used for ceremony musicians. Then determine who can set it up, test it, operate it during the ceremony, etc.
Story #2
Summary: The church organist was not told any cues for starting the processional because “everyone would be ready on time”. The organ was located where the back of the church wasn’t visible to her. She smartly timed her before-the-ceremony prelude music to end at just the right time, as instructed.
When she finished playing the prelude music, according to her instructions, she started playing the first processional piece.
Unfortunately, the bridal party was nowhere near ready to go.
Prevention: Plan for the unexpected. Don’t assume that everything will go according to plan.
Recognize that the musician might not be able to know whether everyone is in place and ready to start. The organist could easily have been prepared with extra music to fill an unexpected need.
Plan for someone to give a cue to the musician when everything’s ready to proceed.
Even when the musician can see the back of the church, it may not be enough. I’ve played for weddings where I could see the back of the church but because of lighting or other conditions I couldn’t make out whether the bridal party was standing in place, ready to go. And I had to guess.
So plan for a cue.
Please remember that I don’t offer these stories to laugh at other’s misfortune or to make fun of the brides or couples who didn’t plan as effectively as they could have. I feel bad for the couples involved that their special day was marred (but fortunately not ruined). My intent is to show you some things that have gone wrong to help you prevent something similar from happening at your wedding!
Take a big step toward avoiding a wedding disaster
Check out my wedding music guide with its wedding music planning checklist. Or sign up and get more tips & ideas in my email newsletter (sign up below). Either way, you’ll be glad you did!
What do you think?
If you think this information is helpful, please leave a comment and say so. I have plenty more stories of wedding disasters that I could write about.
Do you have any good wedding music stories like these that could serve as lessons for today’s couples? Please let me know.
Your comments and suggestions are always read and appreciated!
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