Music for Cocktail Hour

Ahhhhh I’m a music junkie so all of these are beautiful to me lol sorry Im not much help - I left FH in charge of it for our wedding

We had someone play acoustic guitar and sing.

Our music selection is going to be mostly old school (late 90’s/ early 00’s) so for cocktail hour we plan on doing R&B and then it’ll pick up during the reception

I will have just a piano player for cocktail hour.

We had a strolling accordionist at ours.


I would think if you want something a bit more lively, a guitarist would be great. For a classy & calm vibe, maybe a pianist, harpist or string trio/quartet.

One of the members of our band played acoustic guitar and sang for cocktail hour. There were some older or cheesier love songs that they know I wasn’t wild about having during the reception (some of which my husband wanted to include for the older guests), so we suggested he play some of those during cocktail hour instead because I’d either be busy talking to people or taking photos and not notice. 😂


Don’t over think it. Live music during cocktail hour is really nice, but it truly is just background music for everyone mingling.

Ack, I meant to say older songs that the band knew how to play but I wasn’t wild about. 😅 Our band was great, and they had such a broad catalog of songs they knew!

My venue includes a piano player for cocktail hour, but I think something light and not too loud so guests can converse would be nice.