There are some weddings where the music follows a fairly predictable path. A bit of gentle classical music as guests arrive, Canon in D somewhere near the ceremony, perhaps some Ed Sheeran during the drinks reception, and then everyone disappears into dinner.
Benjamin and Arin’s wedding at Hotel du Vin Cheltenham was not one of those weddings.
This was a wedding where Iggy Pop, The Mandalorian, The Avengers, Green Day, Muse, Rush, Chappell Roan and Paolo Nutini could all happily occupy the same musical universe. And, frankly, we are entirely in favour of this sort of thing.
JAM Duo had been booked to provide music throughout several key parts of the day: live cello and piano for the outdoor wedding ceremony, music during the drinks and photography period, live music throughout the wedding breakfast and finally Benjamin and Arin’s first dance.
It also gave us an opportunity to use our gloss black piano shell alongside Anne-Marie’s new Yamaha SVC300 electric cello, which looked particularly at home inside Hotel du Vin.
Wedding Musicians at Hotel du Vin Cheltenham
Hotel du Vin in Cheltenham sits on Parabola Road, just a short distance from the centre of town. It has exactly the sort of interior you expect from Hotel du Vin: dark wood, comfortable corners, wine-related artwork and a slightly clubby feel that suggests somebody, somewhere, should probably be holding a glass of Bordeaux.
The wedding itself was relatively intimate, with around 50 guests, and the colour scheme featured greens, pastels and touches of purple.
The ceremony was being held outside in the hotel courtyard, immediately beside the rear entrance. This was particularly convenient because the wedding breakfast was taking place just inside, meaning our later relocation amounted to travelling through a set of doors rather than dismantling an entire PA system and dragging it across half of Gloucestershire.
For wedding musicians, this constitutes luxury.
The courtyard had been beautifully decorated with colourful flowers running along the aisle, lanterns, hanging decorations and white fabric draped across the wooden pergola at the front.
It was colourful without being overdone and fitted Benjamin and Arin’s wedding perfectly.
Live Music Before the Outdoor Ceremony
We arrived at midday ahead of the 1pm ceremony, giving us plenty of time to unload, set up and make sure everything was ready before guests began arriving at around 12.30pm.
Benjamin and Arin had chosen a particularly eclectic selection of music for the period before the ceremony.
There was Punkrocker by Teddybears and Iggy Pop, Concerning Hobbits by Howard Shore, I’ll Be There For You by The Rembrandts and even the theme from Only Murders in the Building.
This is precisely why we always encourage couples to choose music they actually enjoy rather than simply selecting songs because somebody once decided they were appropriate for weddings.
A wedding does not suddenly require you to develop an overwhelming passion for generic acoustic love songs.
If you like film music, television themes, rock, pop or something slightly obscure, use it.
Benjamin and Arin certainly did.
The final song before the bridal entrance was She’s a Rainbow by The Rolling Stones, after which we moved into one of the more unusual bridal entrance choices we have played recently.
Bridgerton for the Bridal Entrance
Arin entered the ceremony to the Bridgerton Main Title by Kris Bowers.
Film and television music can work extraordinarily well during wedding ceremonies because it is often written specifically to create atmosphere quickly. It can establish a mood almost instantly without needing lyrics or an obvious traditional wedding association.
And, of course, Bridgerton occupies a slightly unusual musical world of its own, sitting somewhere between classical writing and contemporary popular culture.
It therefore felt entirely appropriate for this particular ceremony.
As Arin walked through the courtyard towards Benjamin, we adjusted the live performance around the length of the entrance.
This is one of the advantages of using live musicians for a wedding ceremony. We are not simply pressing play and hoping the bride reaches the front at roughly the same moment the track ends.
We can extend sections, repeat phrases or bring the piece naturally to a close when the moment requires it.
Signing the Register – From Life on Earth to The Mandalorian
Benjamin and Arin continued the television and film theme during the signing of the register.
Their choices included Amaze Amaze Amaze from Life on Earth, the main theme from The Mandalorian by Ludwig Göransson and music from Fantastic Four: First Steps by Michael Giacchino.
There cannot be many wedding ceremonies where The Mandalorian appears during the register signing.
This is clearly something that ought to happen more often.
The signing of the register is also one of those moments where having several pieces prepared is useful. The length can vary considerably depending on photographs, witnesses and how long the registrars require.
Rather than worrying about whether one recording is long enough, we simply keep playing until everyone is ready.
A Michael Giacchino Wedding Exit
For the newly married couple’s exit, Benjamin and Arin chose Life’s Incredible Again by Michael Giacchino.
And that concluded the live ceremony music.
Guests then moved into the drinks and photography part of the afternoon while Benjamin and Arin disappeared for photographs.
Ordinarily JAM Duo often continues playing live during a drinks reception, but the plan here was deliberately different.
A Spotify Playlist for the Drinks Reception
Benjamin and Arin had asked whether their own chosen playlist could be played through our PA system during the drinks period.
Absolutely.
They had selected music from the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtracks, with the specific instruction that I’m Not in Loveby 10cc should not appear.
There is something wonderfully precise about this.
“Here are two entire film soundtracks. Everything is fine apart from this one particular song.”
Noted.
We connected their playlist to our Yamaha Stagepas speaker system, allowing the music to play around the courtyard while photographs were being taken.
This meant there was still a soundtrack to the afternoon without the need for continuous live performance during a period when many guests were moving around and Benjamin and Arin were elsewhere having photographs taken.
It also gave us time to prepare for the next part of the day.
Moving Inside for the Wedding Breakfast
At around 2.45pm guests were invited inside ahead of the wedding breakfast.
Our second setup was positioned near the hotel’s striking spiral staircase.
For this part of the day we used the JAM Duo gloss black piano shell, which transforms our Nord stage piano into something much more visually appropriate for a wedding reception.
Alongside it Anne-Marie used the Yamaha SVC300 electric cello.
The electric cello is particularly useful during wedding breakfasts because we can control the amplification very precisely.
Live music during a meal should provide atmosphere without making everybody at table three shout at one another because a cellist is apparently recreating Wembley Stadium six feet away.
The aim is always to fill the room with music while still allowing conversation to happen normally.
Live Cello and Piano During the Wedding Breakfast
Benjamin and Arin’s meal playlist was enormous fun.
We began exploring everything from film themes and rock music to modern pop and some choices which rarely appear on conventional wedding playlists.
There was the Cantina Band from Star Wars, music from The Avengers, Thunderbolts, The Batman and Captain America.
Benjamin and Arin had specifically asked for The Avengers Theme followed immediately by Thunderbolts, so that became its own miniature Marvel sequence during dinner.
Elsewhere their choices included Spaceman by The Killers, Temple by Kings of Leon, Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan, Supermassive Black Hole by Muse, Holiday by Green Day, Closer to the Heart by Rush and Scar Tissue by Red Hot Chili Peppers.
There was also Rocky Road to Dublin, Life Is a Highway, Fox on the Run and Blister in the Sun.
In other words, absolutely no danger of the wedding breakfast disappearing beneath ninety minutes of anonymous background piano.
This is exactly the sort of wedding playlist we enjoy.
One of the things we have always tried to demonstrate with JAM Duo is that cello and piano do not have to mean exclusively classical music.
A cello is perfectly capable of playing Muse.
A piano does not become offended if asked to play Green Day.
And neither instrument requires an emergency meeting if Chappell Roan suddenly appears.
The important thing is that the music reflects the couple.
Music That Actually Sounds Like the Couple
Wedding music works best when guests recognise something of the people getting married.
That might mean classical music. It might mean Taylor Swift. It might mean movie soundtracks, heavy rock, jazz, indie music or a slightly improbable combination of all of them.
Benjamin and Arin’s choices were unmistakably theirs.
And because JAM Duo performs everything live without backing tracks, arrangements can be adapted specifically for cello and piano.
Sometimes that means transferring a guitar line to the cello. Sometimes a full orchestral texture has to be reduced into something which still conveys the character of the original piece using just two instruments.
That is part of the fun.
Speeches and the First Dance
The wedding breakfast was followed by speeches at around 4.15pm.
Then, shortly afterwards, came the first dance.
Benjamin and Arin had chosen Coming Up Easy by Paolo Nutini.
Rather than using the original recording, they had asked us to perform their first dance live on cello and piano.
A live first dance creates a completely different atmosphere.
There is no recorded vocal dominating the room and no enormous production suddenly appearing from speakers. Instead, the music becomes part of the room itself.
For Coming Up Easy, the piano provides the harmonic structure while the cello takes much of the melodic material, allowing the song to retain its character while becoming something more intimate.
And so, just after half past four, Benjamin and Arin took to the floor while we played their first dance live.
Cake, Music and the End of Our Afternoon
The cake cutting followed shortly afterwards, bringing our part of the wedding to a close.
By this point we had taken Benjamin and Arin’s wedding from an outdoor ceremony featuring Bridgerton and The Mandalorian, through a Guardians of the Galaxy drinks playlist, into a wedding breakfast containing Marvel, Muse, Green Day and Chappell Roan, before finishing with Paolo Nutini.
Which is quite a musical journey for one Thursday afternoon in Cheltenham.
And exactly how a wedding should be.
Personal.
Live Wedding Musicians in Cheltenham and the Cotswolds
Hotel du Vin Cheltenham provides a particularly flexible setting for live wedding music.
The courtyard works beautifully for an outdoor ceremony, while the interior spaces allow musicians to move inside easily for the wedding breakfast and later parts of the day.
For Benjamin and Arin, it meant we could provide several different musical experiences without the day ever feeling disjointed.
Live cello and piano welcomed guests and accompanied the ceremony.
Their own playlist provided the soundtrack while photographs were taken.
Then JAM Duo returned live for the wedding breakfast before finishing with their first dance.
It was a wedding which demonstrated perfectly that there is no requirement for wedding music to follow a predetermined formula.
Choose the songs you actually love.
If that happens to involve Iggy Pop, Howard Shore, Michael Giacchino, Muse, Green Day, John Williams, Paolo Nutini and the theme from The Mandalorian, so much the better.
Thank you to Benjamin and Arin for asking JAM Duo to provide the music for such a wonderfully individual wedding at Hotel du Vin Cheltenham.
We thoroughly enjoyed being part of it.
