Music for an outdoor wedding

Hmm.....music is tough for an outdoor wedding unless you have good sound equipment, especially because of wind. How about hiring someone to play an instrument like a harp or violin during the ceremony?

Hi! We are having an outdoor wedding, too, in a park . I am currently researching the rental of something called a Quebie (like a portable juke box) and a company called rentmygear.com. Basically, the quebie is preloaded with a bunch of music but I think you need to hook it to a sound system. The rentmygear people provide that. You use your CD's, iPod, etc and plug it in and go. They deliver, set up, and pick up the gear. I am having the reception at the same place as the ceremony so this is a must to have music all day/night.

If you're just doing the ceremony in the park, check with your offiiciant. Ours comes with their own sound equipment so maybe yours would have the capability of playing a CD or something.

jlacy has a great idea with the live music, too. I think it's so romantic.

If you don't mind spending money on equipment you'll likely enjoy using after the ceremony Frontgate catalog sells an IPOD speaker that'll project loudly to 150 ft (typical 300-person setup), it comes w/ a mic and has another mic plug that can be used for a mic or guitar. It can be plugged into an electrical outlet OR charged to run on its 6 hr battery. It's built like a rolling suitcase w/ handle and wheels, retails around $300. We have one that is used for ceremonies in our gazebo and love the thing, we've used it every wkend for 2 yrs w/ no problems. For reception music we always setup a full sound system as our tent is electrified, I purchased this unit for the ceremonies because its so easy to transport and use.

With this setup you need to have a person in charge of the IPOD as the music is changed from that, we always recommend setting up a wedding playlist and practicing, it's reliable & simple to operate.

I'm having an outdoor wedding and we are having a friend play the piano beforehand and recording it to something (haven't figured that out yet) and playing it that way. My brother-in-law is going to play his guitar and my cousin is going to sing..it's all going out of one little sub thing. Hopefully it works!

Good luck!

Thankfully our outdoor wedding ceremony site has electricity! We're hiring a Latin/Flamenco style guitarist who will bring his own sound equipment.

Our ceremony we are having 2 violins palying next to the ocean ceremony is 20 mins all togetehr then inside we are having a band

We provide sound for MANY outdoor weddings. If you have a DJ, have them provide sound for the ceremony. Even if you have live musicians, you're going to want a speaker for the officiator, and make sure the speakers are setup for surround sound so that everybody can hear, regardless of where they are sitting. When we provide sound for ceremonies, even if they have live musicians, we plug the musicians into our sound system so the sound is more balanced.

Our ceremony is outside. I've been looking into acoustic, brass and string ensembles, but some of the music I want is because of the lyrics... so then I was thinking about buying speakers for our IPod, but I really dont want to have someone that is part of the wedding worry about when to start and stop the music. There are portable battery operated speakers that some DJ's have for outside ceremonies that dont have electricity. So, thats what I'm looking for now.

We often play at outdoor weddings. A string quartet would work very well in your setting. Good luck!

We too are having an outdoor wedding and struggling with this problem.

My FH has a really nice portable Bose system. My idea is to record the songs that we want in the order that we want on a CD. Then intrust a close friend with the stopping/starting of this CD. Not sure if its gonna work out. Have to tinker with the idea.

My FSIL had my FH do hers (also outside) with an IPOD... but after so long during the ceremony, it went on stand by and my FH not having played with it enough, had a hard time getting it back on.

I liked all the ideas... BUT I need something SUPER cheap at this point.

The last outdoor wedding I went to they had a string quartet for their ceremony. It was lovely.

I'm a harpist and I perform for outdoor ceremonies all the time. Depending on the size of the gazebo, I've done weddings with the harp in the gazebo, or off to the side near where the guests are sitting. The gazebo helps to amplify the sound, but the harp is much louder than people think, and the sound travels well. I usually bring amplification as a backup, but I've found that in 9 out of 10 weddings, it is not required. The harp sounds beautiful acoustically.

One thing I would caution you against is using your own portable CD player or sound system. If you go with a trusted professional DJ, that's great, but I have seen too many instances where people have tried to set everything up themselves, only to have equipment fail, extension cords that aren't the right length to reach power sources, or portable boomboxes that aren't loud enough. I've literally seen ceremonies come to a halt because everyone's waiting for a CD player to work. You don't want that!

I'm having a friend (guy) sing Not Fire Not Ice by Ben Harper for us while I walk down the isle, and it's a quick ceremony so no other music.