music for the church

lowly26

hi all,

because we are not having a traditional church service, it is goin to be short maybe 10 min tops. so we are only goin to need 6 songs at the most. ive got in touch with wedding singers and am getting prices from €300 upwards. may be its just me but im thinking thats a bit much for 6 songs.

what im wondering is what would people opinions be on church weddings that have music played from an ipod or cd system through a state of the art p.a. system??

sillysocks

We had CD music at our church wedding. I think it might depend on the size of the church and the sound in it. Ours was very small and it worked great. Spent a while debating about whether to go ahead with doing it or not and don't regret it at all. I don't think it took anything away from the service, and we could have exactly the songs we wanted sung by who we wanted! Our priest was fairly lenient on religious music so we had mainly Andrea Bocelli and Il Divo songs.

lowly26

yea the church id say is medium sized, its in a small country village if you can imagine that size as opposed to a church in a town. it has just been done up in the last two years with a good system put in. also we have a friend whose brother is a sound engineer so he might do the cues and that for us.

he is pretty flexible on the music as well and we can have something mainstream so long as its suitable for a church as long as we have a hymn for every normal song which we are fine with.

sillysocks

Sounds like it would work fine.... if you do go down the route make sure there's a couple of back up cd's just in case! And whoever is doing the 'pressing play' has a list of exactly which song number gets played at which stage of the mass.

If I could go back and do it all again I would definitely go down the CD route again instead of 'live music'.

I think it comes down to your own personal priorities as to where the money should be spent for the wedding, and then looking at ways of keeping costs down a bit on the rest. Plenty of people will have 'opinions' on what you should do but really only ye can decide what's the most important to ye.

hoodwinked

hi don't want to be a party pooper, but we had the exact same dilemma as you, our musicians backed out last minute and we were left with a cd or pay high money for live dilemma.

lucky for us a local musical group came to the rescue stepped in and did the whole thing in under 2 weeks for €500, (we had our own songs for walking down the aisle and about 6 songs in total)

a cd while many people will say sounded ok, or did the job is not going to create the same atmosphere as a live performance so its up to you if you want a "wow" factor or a "it was fine" factor,

everyone said after ours how the musicians were amazing (as in they were really surprised at how great they were so much so our priest and a few others went to one of their gigs a few weeks after the wedding) and really made the ceremony special for them and for us, music does that, you took the time to choose special songs why wouldn't you want them to sound as good as they can be? its one special day so i don't see the issue in splashing out on something as important as a good atmosphere during the ceremony..

the reason they are so expensive usually is the amount of practice involved in learning new songs or just time spent rehearsing the ones you want, not to mention they will be at the church an hour before to set up and practice.


if i had to do it all again i would make sure to budget for live music, for all the different churches acoustics vary so much what might be ok on cd in one will sound horrible in another.

just my two cents.

lowly26

yea i understand what your saying but our issue with the cost of wedding singers is that usually the church is 30 to 40 min long. because of the differences in the way we are having ours is goin to be 15 to 20 minutes from start to finish including music. and while i now its nice to create an atmosphere , if we were to paywhat some of the people are asking it would be €300.00 to €650.00 for them to work for ten minutes! i'd rather splash that out on better wine for the guests or an extra option for evening food which in my opinion i think they'd appricate a bit more.

janeo80

It's just not the 10 mins that counts, they still have to get there and back, rehearse your music and all that, they should be doing it at a reduced rate maybe, but it's still a date in the diary that means maybe they can't work/teach/whatever, and it's still 6 songs or so. You could haggle a bit I'm sure and get a guitarist or a harpist for €150 maybe but a gig's a gig and they are going to ask for similar money whether it's 10 mins or 1hr10 mins...

lazygal

lowly26 wrote: »

yea i understand what your saying but our issue with the cost of wedding singers is that usually the church is 30 to 40 min long. because of the differences in the way we are having ours is goin to be 15 to 20 minutes from start to finish including music. and while i now its nice to create an atmosphere , if we were to paywhat some of the people are asking it would be €300.00 to €650.00 for them to work for ten minutes! i'd rather splash that out on better wine for the guests or an extra option for evening food which in my opinion i think they'd appricate a bit more.

But they will still have to commit to your wedding, its not like they can squeeze another one in to make up the price after your short ceremony. A family member did our ceremony music as a gift, would anyone you know do that for you?

hoodwinked

lowly26 wrote: »

yea i understand what your saying but our issue with the cost of wedding singers is that usually the church is 30 to 40 min long. because of the differences in the way we are having ours is goin to be 15 to 20 minutes from start to finish including music. and while i now its nice to create an atmosphere , if we were to paywhat some of the people are asking it would be €300.00 to €650.00 for them to work for ten minutes! i'd rather splash that out on better wine for the guests or an extra option for evening food which in my opinion i think they'd appricate a bit more.

with all due respect splashing that €300 on live music imo is a better use than on food which will be left there or wine which won't be drank, (not everybody is a wine drinker so they will end up at the bar anyway, and people tend to look after themselves anyway)

after all you want your day to be special, not just sitting in a church straining to hear/being deafened by the ipod... (not to mention in the hectic ness of the day what happens if its forgotton/technical glitch/forgotton to be charged/in the emotion on the day the person plays the wrong song/misses a song..etc) little touches add to that special feeling, music would be a major touch. you wouldn't set an ipod on for the evening (again im sure its worked for some people but) you need a band or a dj to judge the there and then mood of the crowd and play the appropriate music thats their job. Likewise church musicians would cater to the acoustics of your church.

janeo80

also, how are you fitting 6 songs in 10 mins?

lowly26

janeo80 wrote: »

also, how are you fitting 6 songs in 10 mins?

no no the mass is ten min including one or two of the songs as hymns like for the responce phsalm etc. then there are three songs that we've choosen plus the walking up the aisle music.

lowly26

hoodwinked wrote: »

with all due respect splashing that €300 on live music imo is a better use than on food which will be left there or wine which won't be drank, (not everybody is a wine drinker so they will end up at the bar anyway, and people tend to look after themselves anyway)

after all you want your day to be special, not just sitting in a church straining to hear/being deafened by the ipod... (not to mention in the hectic ness of the day what happens if its forgotton/technical glitch/forgotton to be charged/in the emotion on the day the person plays the wrong song/misses a song..etc) little touches add to that special feeling, music would be a major touch. you wouldn't set an ipod on for the evening (again im sure its worked for some people but) you need a band or a dj to judge the there and then mood of the crowd and play the appropriate music thats their job. Likewise church musicians would cater to the acoustics of your church.

we weren't goin to use an ipod we havea friend who had a proper p.a. system for doing it. so it would still be a professionally done just not a singer doing it.

lazygal

lowly26 wrote: »

no no the mass is ten min including one or two of the songs as hymns like for the responce phsalm etc. then there are three songs that we've choosen plus the walking up the aisle music.

I still don't understand this. Can you have a mass, plus three songs, and wedding vows,min ten minutes? It'll seem like an in and out job tbh.

lowly26

i think people might be misunderstanding me a little bit a have no problem paying for a wedding singer but the ones who were giving me quotes were coming in very high if you get me. like one wanted €650 euro, another wanted €300 and the €150 per instrament. i couldnt find any one with in our budget.

but through here and through facebook (since posting this actually, yeay for boards !!!:D) i was contacted by a few different ones that have been coming it at €200.00 or so. we seen one this evening that was amazing and im very happy to pay what shes asking but up until now i didnt find one within our budget.:)

thanks for the advice though everyone

lowly26

lazygal wrote: »

I still don't understand this. Can you have a mass, plus three songs, and wedding vows,min ten minutes? It'll seem like an in and out job tbh.

we arent having mass just the marriage sacrament. i'm not religous and was goin to get married in the hotel but my oh wanted a church wedding so i went with his choice as it was important to him. when we discussed with the priest he explained to us that we could get married with out tradional mass i.e. sign of peace, comunion, bringing up the gifts etc.

marriage is a sacrament in its self so we a re doin the things realing to marriage only. so with just hymns and the marriage part is 10 min the when we add our songs its 20 minutes or so give or take a few min for what ever may come up etc

hoodwinked

lowly26 wrote: »

i think people might be misunderstanding me a little bit a have no problem paying for a wedding singer but the ones who were giving me quotes were coming in very high if you get me. like one wanted €650 euro, another wanted €300 and the €150 per instrament. i couldnt find any one with in our budget.

but through here and through facebook (since posting this actually, yeay for boards !!!:D) i was contacted by a few different ones that have been coming it at €200.00 or so. we seen one this evening that was amazing and im very happy to pay what shes asking but up until now i didnt find one within our budget.:)

thanks for the advice though everyone

see this is why i love boards! if you find one you love go live, you wont regret it as you are walking down that aisle! (and good luck! )

lowly26 wrote: »

we arent having mass just the marriage sacrament. i'm not religous and was goin to get married in the hotel but my oh wanted a church wedding so i went with his choice as it was important to him. when we discussed with the priest he explained to us that we could get married with out tradional mass i.e. sign of peace, comunion, bringing up the gifts etc.

marriage is a sacrament in its self so we a re doin the things realing to marriage only. so with just hymns and the marriage part is 10 min the when we add our songs its 20 minutes or so give or take a few min for what ever may come up etc

Now i get what you mean,

but have you run through it? that part took us about 30 minutes, but we did the lighting of the candles, the priest will do the welcome, speak to your guests and speak about you for awhile, it can end up longer than you think sometimes be careful, i know it confused me too with the wedding part then the mass part after, (the mass part itself was done in about 10-15minutes so don't confuse the two)

lowly26

yea we are definalty going to book her. im just waiting on her to reply to my email . i sent it as soon as i left the place she was singing ha


yea i thought that bout it my self but the priest were we are is not really a draw it out type. his normal sunday mass is usually 25 to 30 min long. i was really surprised at this cause i remember the last place i live we were in mass for up wards of 40 min.

hoodwinked

lowly26 wrote: »

yea we are definalty going to book her. im just waiting on her to reply to my email . i sent it as soon as i left the place she was singing ha


yea i thought that bout it my self but the priest were we are is not really a draw it out type. his normal sunday mass is usually 25 to 30 min long. i was really surprised at this cause i remember the last place i live we were in mass for up wards of 40 min.

the priest that did ours is the grooms uncle, so his masses are always 20-25mins (i kid you not he is brilliant and funny too) but our wedding mass was spent with him telling embarrassing stories about the groom so that may have been why!

but if your priest gets to know you well enough he may do an impromptu speech on you both (or his observations of you both) depends on how confortable he is!

i hope it all goes perfectly for you both, everyone deserves their perfect day!

lowly26

i doubt it with this priest !!!

thanks so much just wish it would hurry up now !!!

thanks for the advice im sure ill be back for more at some stage

hoodwinked

lowly26 wrote: »

i doubt it with this priest !!!

thanks so much just wish it would hurry up now !!!

thanks for the advice im sure ill be back for more at some stage

i know its probably contradictory but remember its you and your husband to be's day so in the end do whatever the hell you want,

we can give advice but do what you want and you wont go wrong!