Wedding Music Tip #11

Outdoor weddings.

...Outdoor weddings and sound projection.

There's a reason people always recommend woodwind or brass instruments, particularly flutes, for outdoor weddings. It has to do with timbre, spectra of sound and acoustics and other things I cannot explain, but I gather the general idea is the same as placing winds and brass behind the strings in the orchestra. If they were in the front, you would never hear the strings. Bottom line: winds and brass are LOUD.

So, given that they're so loud, fairly safe choices for outdoor events would be the following in no particular order: solo flute, flute trio, brass quintet, woodwind quintet and flute with any other instrument (harp, cello, violin...).

But sometimes even the presence of a woodwind or brass instrument isn't enough to project in an outdoor setting. Take the wedding my flute trio played at Crest Hollow Country Club on Long Island two years ago. The wedding was outdoors, at the end of a sort of promenade, beside a body of water with a very noisy fountain.

The event planner wanted us to play at the start of the promenade-walkway thingy for some reason--behind all the seats and practically a football field away from the designated altar space. We agreed, but generally we prefer to sit facing the guests and closer to the ceremony action for a variety of reasons: If our instruments are facing the guests, they are going to hear us better. If we're sitting near the ceremony action, the officiant, bride and groom can hear us, and it's usually the most advantageous spot visually.

The trio set up where directed and started the prelude music. It quickly became clear that we were facing more than the usual difficulties associated with the great outdoors. The fountain in the water beside us was--to be quite frank--loud as hell. Niagara Falls comes to mind. We continued to play, struggling to project our sound over the deafening gush of water. Once in awhile the flute would break the sound barrier with a very high note or two, but otherwise, it felt like we were a trio of pantomime artists. We contemplated asking the management to turn the fountain off for the ceremony, or whether or not they could set up microphones for us, but it was time to begin the processional before we spotted the event planner rushing from station to station in manner of tazmanian devil.

The bridesmaids proceeded without hitch, but when the bride entered, the guests stood--as is customary--and there was no way for us to see when she reached the altar area. We had to guestimate when it was time to cut off, coupled with backwards looks from a few guests indicating that she was in place and the music should halt.

Luckily the officiant wore a microphone so we could hear the ceremony from our position--all important when getting the cue for the recessional music to begin. The bride thanked the trio afterwards for our performance, but commented that it was hard to hear us. I'll say it was! We were seated miles from the action and competing with the adjacent thundering rapids! In this scenario, we needed to be placed closer to the guests and altar, and we probably needed to be amplified as well.

Wedding Tip #11: Consider the instruments you want when planning an outdoor wedding. Winds and brass work best for obvious reasons, but strings can play outdoors if they're seated close to the guests and ceremony action (preferably facing the guests). Classical guitar will most certainly NOT be heard outdoors unless amplified. Inquire at your venue if sound amplification can be set up for the ceremony musicians if they feel they will need it.

Until the next wedding,

Alice Hamlet, Director
www.tenstringsmusicstudio.com