There are some wedding bookings which arrive in the diary twelve months ahead, complete with colour palettes, carefully constructed schedules and enough advance planning to make the invasion of a small European country look slightly casual. And then there are weddings like Aleisha and Nathan’s at Hazlewood Castle, which appeared rather more suddenly.
We were recommended to Aleisha and Nathan by the wonderful team at Fantastic with Fizz, and their wedding was booked with JAM Duo only around two weeks before the big day. Fortunately, the diary behaved itself, the instruments were available — always useful — and on Monday 31 August we found ourselves heading to Hazlewood Castle to provide live cello and piano music for their indoor wedding ceremony and drinks reception.
Last-minute weddings can sometimes sound as though they ought to involve frantic telephone calls, somebody ordering flowers from a motorway service station and a best man being informed at breakfast that he is, in fact, the best man. In reality, Aleisha and Nathan had created a lovely wedding day, and from our point of view everything fitted together remarkably easily.
A Wedding at Hazlewood Castle
Hazlewood Castle is exactly the sort of place where a wedding feels as though it belongs. There are castles which have spent several centuries becoming heritage attractions and now rather resent the arrival of anybody carrying a champagne flute. Hazlewood, by contrast, manages to retain all the character, wood panelling, high ceilings and architectural detail you want from a historic building while still functioning very naturally as a wedding venue.
Everything for Aleisha and Nathan’s part of the day was taking place inside the castle, which made life pleasantly straightforward for us. We arrived, unloaded the cello, piano and sound equipment and were shown where we would be playing by the venue team. One of the advantages of working at a well-established wedding venue is that there is usually somebody who knows precisely what is happening, where everybody should be and, crucially, which door actually leads to the room you are trying to find.
The wedding colours worked beautifully with the surroundings too. The bridesmaids wore dark green while the groomsmen were in dark grey suits with matching dark green ties. Against the warm timber, patterned walls and rather grand interiors of Hazlewood Castle, it all looked extremely elegant without feeling overly formal.
Music as the Guests Arrived
The first guests were expected from around 10.30am, with the ceremony beginning at 11am, so we were ready beforehand to provide music as everybody gathered.
Aleisha and Nathan had chosen a lovely collection of songs for this part of the morning, including Golden Hour, Ordinary, Can’t Help Falling in Love, Demons and Make You Feel My Love. It was quite an eclectic selection, which is something we always enjoy. Weddings do not need to be accompanied exclusively by pieces written by men wearing wigs in 1783. If a song means something to you, or you simply love it, there is usually a way of making it work beautifully for cello and piano.
That is one of the things we particularly enjoy about playing weddings as JAM Duo. Because everything is performed live by Anne-Marie and me, rather than played over backing tracks, we can shape each arrangement to the atmosphere in the room. Music while guests are arriving needs to sit naturally underneath conversation. It should create a sense that something special is about to happen without making everybody feel as though they have accidentally wandered into the front row of a concert.
By 11am the room had filled, everyone was in place, and it was time for the ceremony.
I See the Light for the Bridal Entrance
Four bridesmaids entered ahead of Aleisha before we moved into her chosen bridal entrance music, I See the Light.
It is a lovely choice for a wedding entrance and works particularly well with cello and piano because the melody has enough space in it to breathe. More importantly, because we are playing live, we are able to watch what is happening rather than forcing the bridal party to keep pace with a recording.
This is one of those apparently small differences which becomes rather important at an actual wedding. Four bridesmaids might walk at precisely the expected speed. Or one may pause. Somebody may adjust a dress. The doors may take slightly longer to open. The bride may choose to wait for a moment before beginning her entrance. Human beings, irritatingly, refuse to conform to the exact timings prescribed by Spotify.
Live musicians simply adapt.
We can extend an introduction, repeat a section, move naturally towards a cadence or hold the music until exactly the right moment. The result is that the entrance feels as though the music has been written around what is happening rather than the bridal party having to perform a mildly stressful synchronised walking exercise.
Aleisha looked wonderful as she entered, and it was one of those moments where the surroundings, the music and the atmosphere all came together beautifully.
Music During the Ceremony
For the signing of the register, Aleisha and Nathan had chosen three songs: Accidentally in Love, Count on Me and A Sky Full of Stars.
The signing is always an interesting part of a wedding ceremony musically because its duration is almost impossible to predict. Sometimes the paperwork is completed with the efficiency of somebody renewing a parking permit. On other occasions there are photographs, witnesses move around, pens fail to work and various important-looking documents appear from folders.
Again, live music solves this rather neatly.
We simply continue until everything is finished, adjusting the music as required so there is never an awkward silence and equally no moment where a recording suddenly stops while the photographer is still arranging everybody around the signing table.
A Sky Full of Stars in particular works wonderfully on cello and piano, giving the end of the signing a sense of lift before everybody returns to their seats.
Then came the moment everybody had been waiting for.
Aleisha and Nathan were married, the formal part of the ceremony was complete and we launched into Bruno Mars’ Marry You for their exit.
There are occasions when subtlety is overrated.
A wedding recessional should feel celebratory, and Marry You does exactly what is required. The newly married couple walked back through their guests as everyone applauded, and the atmosphere immediately shifted from ceremony to celebration.
Drinks Inside the Castle
Following the ceremony we moved into the drinks reception, with JAM Duo continuing to provide live music from approximately 11.30am until 1.30pm.
There is a surprisingly significant difference between music for a ceremony and music for drinks. During the ceremony every musical moment is attached to something specific. The entrance, signing and exit all have defined jobs. Drinks reception music has a rather different task: it needs to keep the atmosphere moving while guests talk, congratulate the couple, find champagne and begin the important British wedding tradition of trying to remember the names of people they last saw fourteen years ago.
Aleisha and Nathan gave us a superbly varied set of requests.
Their choices included everything from La Vie en Rose, L-O-V-E and Stand By Me through to Dance Monkey, Dancing in the Moonlight, Girls Like You and Pink Pony Club. Queen appeared with Crazy Little Thing Called Love, The Proclaimers supplied I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), while Guns N’ Roses contributed Sweet Child o’ Mine.
Then things became even more interesting.
We also had Linkin Park’s What I’ve Done, Evanescence’s My Immortal and Zombie by The Cranberries.
And this is exactly why we rather like letting couples choose their own wedding music.
There is absolutely no law stating that a drinks reception must consist exclusively of Ed Sheeran, jazz standards and something vaguely involving a ukulele. If you grew up listening to Linkin Park, then there is no reason why Linkin Park cannot appear at your wedding. Admittedly, putting it onto cello and piano makes it sound considerably more appropriate for a castle, which is perhaps our particular contribution to proceedings.
My Immortal is especially effective for cello and piano, as is Zombie. Both have strong melodies and plenty of emotional weight, while Sweet Child o’ Mine translates surprisingly well once removed from its natural habitat of enormous guitar amplifiers and men wearing bandanas.
That combination of songs gave the drinks reception real personality. We could move from something elegant and romantic such as La Vie en Rose into contemporary pop, then perhaps take an unexpected excursion into Evanescence before returning via Halo or Beneath Your Beautiful.
It made for a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours.
Why Live Music Works So Well During Drinks
The drinks reception is one of our favourite parts of a wedding day because it is where everybody finally relaxes.
The ceremony has happened. Nobody has forgotten the rings. The bride and groom are officially married. The photographer begins gathering various groups of relatives while everybody else discovers where the drinks are being served.
Live music gives that period of the day a focus without dominating it.
We are not trying to turn the drinks reception into a concert. Our job is to create an atmosphere which makes the room feel alive. Sometimes people stop and listen to a particular arrangement. Occasionally somebody suddenly recognises a song and gives us a very enthusiastic thumbs-up from across the room. Much of the time, however, the music simply becomes part of the wedding itself.
And that is exactly how it should be.
At Hazlewood Castle, surrounded by the historic interiors and with guests moving between rooms, cello and piano felt entirely at home.
A Last-Minute Wedding We Were Very Glad to Play
Considering Aleisha and Nathan contacted us only around two weeks before their wedding, it was particularly lovely that everything came together so easily.
We are extremely grateful to Fantastic with Fizz for recommending JAM Duo to them. Recommendations from other wedding suppliers mean a great deal to us because they come from people who see weddings from the other side of the curtain. They know which suppliers turn up, which ones are easy to work alongside and which ones quietly get on with what they are there to do.
And sometimes a recommendation at exactly the right moment leads us to a wedding we otherwise would never have been part of.
This was one of those occasions.
From the relaxed music as guests arrived, through Aleisha’s entrance to I See the Light, the ceremony itself and then two hours of wonderfully varied requests during drinks, it was a genuinely lovely wedding for us to play.
Congratulations Aleisha and Nathan
A huge thank you to Aleisha and Nathan for choosing JAM Duo to provide the music for their wedding at Hazlewood Castle.
We thoroughly enjoyed being part of your day and particularly loved the variety of music you chose for the drinks reception. Any wedding playlist which manages to accommodate La Vie en Rose, Bruno Mars, Guns N’ Roses, Linkin Park, Evanescence and The Cranberries deserves a certain amount of respect.
Thank you too to the team at Hazlewood Castle for looking after us and helping everything run so smoothly, and of course to Fantastic with Fizz for putting Aleisha and Nathan in touch with us in the first place.
It may have been one of our more last-minute bookings of the summer, but it turned into a wonderful wedding and a lovely way for JAM Duo to spend the final day of August.
Congratulations, Aleisha and Nathan — and thank you for having us.
