What I play for
Six parts of the day, and what happens in each
Book one. Book all of them. Most couples land on two or three once they've seen their running order. It's one person the whole way through: one voice, one guitar, a loop pedal and a PA sized for the room. If you want to know what an acoustic wedding singer actually sounds like at a wedding, that page has the recordings and the prices side by side.
The ceremony
£400
3 short moments
Three moments, and they're the three people remember.
Walking in. Whatever you've chosen, played live, ten feet from you rather than through a ceiling speaker. I'll time it to your walk rather than the other way round, so if there's a hold-up at the door the music simply carries on.
Signing the register. Usually two or three songs, quiet, while everyone talks and the photographer moves around. This is the bit couples forget to plan and it's longer than you think. If you want somewhere to start, here are fifteen songs that work for signing the register.
Walking out. Something with a lift in it. This is the loudest applause of the day and it should have music underneath it.
Roughly 3 short moments across 30 to 40 minutes. Includes a planning call to fix the timings with your registrar or celebrant.
If you book only one part of the day, make it this one. It's the part where live genuinely isn't the same as recorded.
Afternoon drinks reception
£500
45 to 60 mins
The hour or two after the ceremony while canapés go round and you're being photographed somewhere else entirely. Your guests are standing in a garden or a courtyard with a drink, half of them have never met, and the room is doing the social work for you.
This is background music with a job: keeping the energy up without making anyone raise their voice. I sit at the edge of it, not in the middle.
45 to 60 minutes. Battery-powered PA available if there's no power outside.
The wedding breakfast
£600
2 x 45 mins
Two sets, played between courses, at a volume that lets people talk across a table. I take requests during this part and people always have them. It builds towards the speeches rather than competing with them.
Two sets of around 45 minutes each. I'll work to your caterer's timings, and I'll stop the second the toastmaster or best man stands up.
The evening turnaround
£500
45 to 60 mins
The half hour nobody plans for. The room is being flipped, tables are coming out, the band or DJ is loading in, and your guests are standing in a corridor holding drinks with nothing to look at.
Live music through the turnaround is the single most underrated booking of the day. It stops the energy dropping to zero right before the part you've spent the most money on.
45 to 60 minutes, wherever they've herded everyone.
Your first dance
£300
1 song
Your song, arranged for one guitar and one voice.
I'll send you an mp3 of the arrangement before the wedding so you know exactly what you're dancing to, and I'll cut it to a length you can actually get through. Most first dances are shorter than the original track and there's no shame in that at all.
If your song genuinely doesn't work acoustically, I'll tell you, and I'll suggest two things that would. I'd rather do that than let you find out on the night.
One song. Arrangement sent in advance.
The evening set
£400
45 to 60 mins
Louder, faster, and aimed squarely at getting people up before the DJ starts. Oasis, Kings of Leon, The Killers, Mr Brightside at some point, because there is always a Mr Brightside.
If you've got a DJ, I'll often plug straight into their speakers so there's no gap and no second setup cluttering the room.
45 to 60 minutes, usually straight after the first dance.
Not sure which parts you need?
Send me your running order, or just your date and venue if you haven't got one yet, and I'll tell you which parts I'd book and which I honestly wouldn't. It costs you nothing and I'll give you a straight answer.