There are certain wedding mornings when you arrive at a venue, look at the sky, look at the outdoor ceremony area and think, yes, this is exactly how this was supposed to work. Lauren and Josh’s wedding at Eastington Park in Gloucestershire on 25 August was one of those days. The pergola was ready, the chairs were set out beneath the trees, the gardens looked suitably magnificent and, remarkably for a British summer wedding, the weather had apparently read the itinerary and decided to cooperate.
We had been booked to provide live cello and piano music for both the outdoor wedding ceremony and the drinks reception afterwards. With 68 guests, it was also a particularly lovely size of wedding: large enough to create a real sense of occasion, but intimate enough that the ceremony still felt personal rather than resembling the evacuation procedure from a medium-sized railway station.
The setting suited Lauren and Josh’s colour scheme beautifully. The bridesmaids wore light blue dresses, with white and pale blue flowers bringing everything together against the green backdrop of the gardens. The groomsmen were in black tails with blue waistcoats, while Josh distinguished himself with a gold waistcoat — which seems entirely reasonable. If there is ever a day when one should be identifiable as the groom from at least 50 yards away, it is surely one’s wedding day.
An Outdoor Ceremony at Eastington Park
Eastington Park is one of those Gloucestershire wedding venues that works especially well for live daytime wedding music because the outdoor spaces have a proper sense of occasion. Lauren and Josh had chosen the pergola for their ceremony, with guests seated around the paved garden area beneath mature trees.
There is something rather special about an outdoor wedding ceremony when everything comes together properly. The sound of guests arriving carries through the gardens, people have time to take in their surroundings, and the music becomes part of the whole atmosphere rather than simply something happening at the front of a room.
Of course, outdoor weddings also introduce a number of things which musicians traditionally prefer not to encounter: direct sunshine, unexpected rain, wind strong enough to relocate sheet music into the next county and, occasionally, a power socket positioned somewhere near Wales. Fortunately, none of these presented a problem at Eastington Park.
We set ourselves up ready for the arrival of the guests and began with Lauren and Josh’s choice of pre-ceremony music. It was an unusually varied selection, which is something we always enjoy. Their choices included Can You Feel the Love Tonight, Tale as Old as Time, Toto’s Africa, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, 500 Miles and Taylor Swift’s Enchanted.
It is one of the things we particularly enjoy about modern wedding music. There is no longer any requirement for every piece before a ceremony to sound vaguely as though it was written in Vienna in 1787. A cello and piano can move quite happily from Disney to Toto, Queen, The Proclaimers and Taylor Swift without anybody needing to explain themselves.
And frankly, that is exactly as it should be.
Love Story Into Perfect – Creating Lauren’s Bridal Entrance
The bridal entrance is one of the parts of a wedding ceremony where live music really comes into its own.
Lauren had four bridesmaids and a flower girl in the bridal party before she entered with her father. Rather than using one piece throughout, Lauren and Josh had chosen one of our live bridal entrance blends. The bridesmaids entered to Taylor Swift’s Love Story, before the music moved into Ed Sheeran’s Perfect for Lauren’s entrance.
This is precisely the sort of moment that we believe should be performed live.
With recorded music, somebody presses play and everybody then has to adapt themselves to whatever the recording happens to be doing. With live cello and piano, we can do the opposite. We watch the bridal party, shape the music around the procession and make the transition at exactly the right moment.
If the bridesmaids take slightly longer than expected, we continue. If everybody suddenly develops the walking speed of someone late for the 08:17 to Paddington, we adjust. And when Lauren was ready to make her entrance, we could move naturally from Love Story into Perfect without an awkward pause or somebody having to prod a telephone screen at the back of the ceremony.
It sounds like a small detail, but these are the details that make a wedding ceremony feel effortless.
Lauren looked wonderful as she made her way towards the pergola, with the light blue of the bridesmaids working beautifully against the summer gardens. From our position we get a slightly unusual perspective on weddings: we see the guests turn, we see the bridal party arrive, and we are also concentrating rather carefully on several thousand notes and the timing of everything. Multitasking is an occupational hazard.
Music During the Ceremony
For the signing of the register, Lauren and Josh chose another three excellent pieces: Ellie Goulding’s How Long Will I Love You, Wildest Dreams and You Belong With Me.
The signing is one of those deceptively important musical moments. It can take a few minutes while the official business is completed, photographs are taken and various people establish precisely where they are meant to sign. Without music, it can all become unexpectedly administrative.
Live music keeps the ceremony flowing.
We always prepare several pieces because the exact length of the signing can never really be predicted. Sometimes everything is completed remarkably efficiently. On other occasions there appears to be enough paperwork to complete the purchase of a moderately complicated commercial property.
Either way, we simply keep playing until everyone is ready.
Then came the moment when Lauren and Josh were officially married and ready to leave the ceremony. Their choice for the couple’s exit was Accidentally in Love.
An excellent choice.
Wedding exits should feel celebratory, and there is something particularly good about launching into a bright, upbeat song as the newly married couple walk back through their guests. Accidentally in Love has exactly the right energy without becoming overpowering, and on cello and piano it makes a wonderfully joyful end to the ceremony.
From Ceremony to Drinks Reception
Once the ceremony had finished, the wedding moved naturally into the outdoor drinks reception on the terrace.
This is another reason we particularly enjoy bookings where we provide music for both parts of the afternoon. Rather than the music stopping abruptly after the ceremony, it simply changes character.
Ceremony music has a job to do. It accompanies entrances, creates atmosphere during quieter moments and punctuates the important points of the service. Drinks reception music is different. Now everybody has relaxed. The formal part of the afternoon is complete, drinks appear, conversations begin and the music becomes part of the background atmosphere.
At Eastington Park, guests gathered outside beneath the large parasols and around the terrace, enjoying what had developed into a genuinely lovely summer afternoon.
Our role at this stage is not to dominate the occasion. Nobody wants to attend a drinks reception where two musicians have apparently mistaken themselves for the headline act at Wembley. The point is to create an atmosphere: music that guests recognise, enjoy and occasionally stop mid-conversation to identify.
And Lauren and Josh had given us plenty to work with.
A Drinks Reception Playlist With Plenty of Variety
Their drinks reception selections included McFly’s All About You, Tom Odell’s Another Love, Jack Johnson’s Better Together, Brown Eyed Girl, Bruno Mars’ Count on Me, Dance Monkey, Dancing in the Moonlight, Dancing on My Own, Demons, Friday I’m in Love, Girls Like You, Halo, I’ll Be There for You, Mr Brightside, Never Enough, Sign of the Times, Sweet Disposition, The Cave, Hallelujah, Yellow, Everglow, Ordinary and Stargazing, amongst others.
This is exactly the sort of repertoire that shows why cello and piano work so well for a modern wedding.
Take something like Mr Brightside. On the original recording it is hardly what you would describe as discreet background music. It normally arrives at approximately the point in an evening when half the wedding guests suddenly believe they are Brandon Flowers.
But strip the song back to cello and piano and it becomes something quite different while remaining instantly recognisable.
The same applies to songs such as Dancing on My Own, Friday I’m in Love or Sweet Disposition. We are not trying to imitate the original recordings. We arrange the music around what cello and piano do well: melody, harmony, rhythm and expression. Everything is played live, with no backing tracks.
That allows the sound to sit naturally within a drinks reception rather than competing with it.
It also means we can respond to what is happening around us. If guests are particularly engaged with a piece, we can let it breathe. If there is an announcement or something else needs to happen, we can bring the music neatly to a close. Live music is flexible in a way a playlist simply cannot be.
Professional Wedding Music Without Taking Over the Wedding
Eastington Park operates with a 95-decibel sound limit, which is comfortably suited to what we do. Our daytime wedding setup is designed to produce a polished, full sound without unnecessary volume.
There is occasionally a misconception that amplified music must mean loud music. It doesn’t. Amplification allows us to balance the cello and piano properly and distribute the sound evenly across a space. The aim is not to see how many windows we can dislodge from the venue.
For an outdoor ceremony and drinks reception, that balance matters enormously. Guests need to hear the music, but they should still be able to talk comfortably.
Our job is to enhance the wedding rather than become the wedding.
It sounds obvious, but it is something we take seriously. Every part of the day — from arriving and setting up through to the timing of Lauren’s entrance and the atmosphere during the drinks reception — needs to feel professional and unobtrusive.
Ideally, from the couple’s perspective, it should simply work.
A Beautiful Summer Wedding in Gloucestershire
Looking back at the photographs from the day, what really comes across is how well everything fitted together. The pergola surrounded by trees made a lovely focal point for the ceremony, while the light blue bridesmaid dresses looked particularly striking against the greenery. Later, the terrace filled with guests and had exactly the relaxed atmosphere you want from an outdoor summer drinks reception.
But photographs can only show part of a wedding.
Music provides another layer entirely.
It was Love Story becoming Perfect as Lauren arrived with her father. It was Wildest Dreams playing while Lauren and Josh signed the register. It was the first notes of Accidentally in Love as they left the ceremony together. And afterwards it was everything from Yellow and Everglow to Mr Brightside drifting across the terrace while everyone relaxed in the Gloucestershire sunshine.
Those are the moments we love being part of.
Thank you so much to Lauren and Josh for choosing JAM Duo to provide the live cello and piano music for their wedding at Eastington Park. It was a beautiful day, a fabulous setting for an outdoor ceremony and a genuinely lovely wedding to be part of.
And, perhaps most impressively of all, somebody organised an outdoor wedding in England and the weather actually did what it was told.
We couldn’t reasonably ask for much more.
