There are wedding venues, there are historic wedding venues, and then there is Windsor Guildhall, which sits almost directly opposite Windsor Castle looking as though it has spent the past three centuries quietly judging every building constructed since.
This was the setting for the wedding of Thomas and Regina, who chose JAM Duo to provide live cello and piano music for their ceremony and drinks reception on 2 August 2026.
And this particular wedding had a little extra significance for Jules.
Immediately next door to the Guildhall is Windsor Parish Church, where Jules was organist back in 1994 while studying at Royal Holloway. So returning more than thirty years later, this time with a Nord piano rather than an organ console and Anne-Marie alongside him on cello, felt distinctly like one of those moments where life has quietly completed a rather large circle without troubling to tell you in advance.
Fortunately, the Guildhall itself had barely rushed into modernity.
Which, frankly, is exactly as it should be.
A Wedding Venue With Rather a Lot of History
Windsor is not a town that does understated historical context.
Walk fifty yards in almost any direction and you are liable to encounter a castle, a royal connection, a centuries-old building or something bearing a plaque informing you that somebody extremely important once had breakfast there in 1742.
Windsor Guildhall fits beautifully into this landscape.
The building dates from the late seventeenth century and has hosted a considerable amount of history since then. Most famously in wedding terms, it was the venue chosen by King Charles III and Queen Camilla for their civil marriage in 2005.
So when you arrive to play for a wedding here there is a certain sense that the building has already seen most things.
Eighty-six guests?
Fine.
Cello and piano?
Perfectly reasonable.
Bride arriving to music from Pride and Prejudice?
Excellent.
The Guildhall has survived several centuries of British history. It can cope.
Thomas and Regina had chosen a colour palette of ivory, green and burgundy, which suited the surroundings beautifully. The ceremony took place upstairs in the magnificent main chamber, with guests arriving from 11am ahead of the bride’s entrance at 11.30.
Our position was at the rear of the room, giving us a clear view along the aisle and, crucially, allowing us to respond precisely to what was actually happening.
Because wedding ceremony music is one of those things that looks incredibly simple right up until you have to make it work.
Music Before the Ceremony
Thomas and Regina had put a great deal of thought into their music, which is always something we enjoy.
There was no attempt here to assemble a list of songs simply because somebody on the internet had declared them to be “the ten pieces you absolutely must have at your wedding.”
Instead, their choices were personal, interesting and wonderfully varied.
Before the ceremony we played Due Tramonti by Ludovico Einaudi, followed by Gabriel’s Oboe by Ennio Morricone and our arrangement of My Immortal by Evanescence.
Three pieces from completely different musical worlds, yet all working extremely well on cello and piano.
This is one of the things we particularly enjoy about performing weddings as JAM Duo. Because there are no backing tracks involved, we are not tied to somebody else’s arrangement, tempo or fixed duration. We can shape the music around the room, the atmosphere and the timing of the day.
And at a ceremony, timing matters.
Quite a lot.
Bridal Entrance
For her entrance Regina had chosen Liz on Top of the World, composed by Dario Marianelli for Pride and Prejudice.
And this is where live music becomes particularly valuable.
A bride does not walk at a mathematically predetermined speed.
Nor, despite what wedding schedules occasionally suggest, can you reliably calculate an aisle entrance to the nearest eight bars.
People pause.
Guests turn around.
Photographers move.
Dresses require negotiation.
Fathers occasionally decide this is an excellent moment to contemplate the full emotional significance of the past thirty years.
With two musicians playing live, none of this presents a problem.
We simply watch, listen and shape the music so that the ending arrives when the bride does.
No fading out.
No frantic search for a volume control.
No unfortunate moment where Spotify decides the next track should begin.
Just music fitting the moment.
Music for the Signing
Once Thomas and Regina were married, the signing of the register gave us another opportunity to explore some of their more individual choices.
First came Archie, Marry Me, performed as a piano solo.
Then This Must Be the Place, originally by Talking Heads, followed by I’ve Seen It by Olivia Dean for cello and piano.
The signing part of a ceremony can vary enormously in length, which again is why live musicians are useful.
Sometimes it is over surprisingly quickly.
Sometimes several documents appear.
Then another document.
Then somebody discovers that something else needs signing.
Then the photographer requires a photograph of the signing which involves everybody pretending to sign something they have already signed.
It is one of the great administrative mysteries of marriage.
Our job is simply to keep the music flowing until everyone is ready.
Amor Eterno
For their exit, Thomas and Regina had chosen Amor Eterno by Juan Gabriel.
It was a particularly meaningful and distinctive choice, and exactly the sort of music we love being asked to arrange.
One of the advantages of cello and piano is that the combination works across an enormous variety of styles. We can move from Einaudi to Evanescence, from Sigur Rós to Mexican popular music, and none of it needs to feel remotely out of place.
As Thomas and Regina made their way back up the aisle as a married couple, Amor Eterno brought the ceremony to its conclusion before everyone began making their way downstairs.
Which meant it was time for us to move as well.
From the Chamber to the Corn Market
The drinks reception was taking place downstairs beneath the Guildhall in the covered Corn Market area.
So, once the ceremony had finished, we packed down our instruments and transferred everything from upstairs to the reception space below.
Moving a digital piano and an electric cello between different parts of a historic building is considerably easier than moving a nine-foot Steinway and a seventeenth-century Italian cello, which is one of several reasons we have resisted that particular equipment upgrade.
Thomas and Regina had very kindly offered to allocate people to help us if necessary, although we are fairly practised at moving our setup by now.
Within a short while we were ready again as guests gathered with drinks beneath the Guildhall.
The Corn Market makes a particularly lovely setting for this part of a wedding. It is effectively outside while remaining covered, giving the atmosphere of a terrace reception without requiring everyone to stare nervously at weather apps.
And after the formality and grandeur of the ceremony upstairs, the atmosphere naturally relaxed.
An Irish, Mexican, American and Rather Eclectic Drinks Reception
The music Thomas and Regina chose for their drinks reception was gloriously difficult to categorise.
Which is a compliment.
We began working through a selection that included Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap, Carrickfergus, Accidentally in Love by Counting Crows, Glimpse of Us by Joji, My Way, Your Song by Elton John, Mia and Sebastian’s Theme from La La Land and So Easy to Fall in Love by Olivia Dean.
There was also a folk-song medley bringing together Londonderry Air, Fields of Athenry and Loch Lomond.
This meant we travelled musically through Ireland, Scotland, Hollywood, contemporary pop and Frank Sinatra without actually moving more than a few feet.
Far more efficient than British Airways.
Jules also played a couple of piano solos, including Hang on Little Tomato and Our Day Will Come, while Anne-Marie’s cello brought warmth and lyrical colour to the rest of the programme.
It was exactly how we think drinks reception music should work.
The music is present, but it is not demanding everybody’s attention.
Guests can talk.
They can wander.
They can listen when a favourite song catches their ear.
The atmosphere builds around the music rather than the music becoming an event which everyone has been ordered to watch.
Back in Windsor
For Jules, there was something particularly enjoyable about performing here again.
Back in 1994, Windsor Parish Church next door had been part of his musical life while he was studying at Royal Holloway.
At that point, the idea that more than three decades later he would return to the same corner of Windsor as one half of a professional cello and piano duo playing for a wedding at the Guildhall probably wasn’t occupying much space in the five-year plan.
To be fair, there probably wasn’t a five-year plan.
There was an organ, a university degree and presumably considerably more hair.
But this is one of the unexpected pleasures of being a musician.
Places return.
Buildings remain.
And occasionally you find yourself working next door to somewhere you knew extremely well in another part of your life.
Only now there is an electric cello involved.
A Wonderful Windsor Guildhall Wedding
By 1pm our part in Thomas and Regina’s day had come to an end.
Two hours had taken us from the anticipation of guests arriving, through Regina’s entrance and the ceremony itself, to a relaxed drinks reception beneath one of Windsor’s most recognisable historic buildings.
It had been a wonderfully individual selection of music for a genuinely memorable setting.
From Hoppípolla immediately before the bride’s entrance to Liz on Top of the World, from Amor Eterno at the end of the ceremony to folk songs, Olivia Dean, Elton John and La La Land during the drinks reception, this was a wedding where the music very clearly belonged to the couple.
And that is always the point.
Wedding music does not need to come from a predetermined list.
It does not need to sound like everybody else’s wedding.
And it certainly does not need to be confined to whatever happens to exist as an instrumental backing track.
With live cello and piano, almost anything can become part of the day.
For Thomas and Regina, that meant a wonderfully personal programme of music in one of England’s most historic wedding venues.
Thank you both for inviting JAM Duo to be part of it.
Returning to Windsor was a pleasure.
Playing at the Guildhall was rather special.
And having the old organist from next door turn up thirty-two years later with a red piano and a cellist?
Well, nobody in 1994 saw that coming.
