Following the lengthy previous post on our hidden time commitments, we’ll keep this one within the 500-word count! We were going to address wedding first dance songs within another post but we believe it warrants a post of its own, given how important a subject it is.
We’ll begin by saying we love playing first dance songs at weddings. As addressed in previous posts, it is a privilege and an honour to be so directly involved during one of the most important times of a wedding day. Despite the first dance often being a stand-alone song, separate from other performances, we are more than happy to offer it as an add-on to our regular packages.
Which brings us, as discussed within previous posts, to the issue of what to charge. We do charge a small amount to learn a first dance song if it is a song which doesn’t feature in our standard set, though we know that this price is extremely competitive when compared to other live music acts. If the song request features in our regular set, we will gladly perform it for free. That is the primary reason for charging a little extra – it takes time to learn new songs, particularly first dance songs which we want to be absolutely perfect. We will gladly learn new songs when required (we haven’t been outfoxed by any requests yet!) though we always discuss the requirements in depth with clients. If a carbon copy of the original is required, we can play to backing tracks. However, our most popular first dances to date have been acoustic covers, often putting our own subtle take on the arrangement. Clients who have opted for this have been fully aware that an acoustic cover of a recorded song will often sound slightly different to the original but we always find that clients appreciate the individuality and uniqueness of such a performance. We have received huge amounts of positive feedback saying how these performances have really added something special to such an important part of the day. This approach can also provide an opportunity to create truly unique memories by addressing songs which are a little left of centre of ‘usual’ wedding first dances. Songs such as Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and Christina Perri’s ‘A Thousand Years’ are quite rightly very popular wedding first dances though they are quite conventional choices. In addition to those, we have previously performed our own acoustic versions of songs such as One Direction’s ‘History’, Etta James’ ‘At Last’ and a considerably different version of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ with great success. Apologies for throwing in a cliché but a little thinking outside the box can often create the most magical memories!
Once again, thanks for reading and please do let us know what you think.
Becci and Mick
🙂