COVID-19: BOOK WITH CONFIDENCE WITH OUR COMPREHENSIVE COVID COVER.
Learn more
Planning an outdoor wedding or wedding ceremony? Here’s how to enjoy outdoor live music on your special day!
When planning an outdoor wedding or wedding ceremony, it is possible to have a live wedding band or wedding ceremony musician perform outdoors for you. However, you will need to make sure they have ample space, power, cover from the elements, a stage or solid flooring, and that live music is allowed in an outdoor setting at your wedding venue.
Yes, you can have that amazing outdoor live wedding music!
Well, that was the short and simple answer for you and it’s good news! Yes! You can indeed have live music at your outdoor wedding or wedding ceremony (as award-winning live band Party Republic are demonstrating above!) but there is an important checklist that needs to be followed to make sure you aren’t left disappointed or with no outdoor live music at all! I will mainly reference weddings in today’s guide but my advice is relevant for any outdoor event where you’d like to enjoy live music.
In today’s guide
In today’s guide, I’ll show how you can enjoy live music at your outdoor wedding by explaining what you need to ask both your wedding venue and wedding music band or wedding ceremony musician. Along the way, I’ll give examples of fantastic wedding musicians whose speciality is to perform outdoors at weddings and events.
The perfect outdoor live act for your wedding
Here at Seventh Second, we have a wide choice of live acts that can expertly perform outdoors at all sorts of weddings and events, why not take a look below?
How to have amazing live music at your outdoor wedding or wedding ceremony
So, let me go through each of the requirements any outdoor wedding musician has and how you can fulfil them. Once you’ve completed all these steps, the outdoor wedding music you’ve been dreaming of will be a reality! Here’s a quick breakdown of what most live wedding acts will need.
Cover and protection from the elements
Ample power supply
Ample space to perform with a stable safe floor or stage
Information about any sound or performance restrictions
Let’s start with something we all love though, the English weather…
1. The English weather
We all know about our fair isles’ unpredictable weather and even if you are hiring a wedding band such as Paper Boats (above) who can perform fully acoustic, you will need to make sure they have some form of cover in case that glorious English rain arrives. I myself have performed at many outdoor weddings with our lovely live wedding bands and even in the heat of August, rain and even hail have arrived unannounced. It’s very rude of our weather, especially during a wedding but that’s the reality and is why any wedding entertainer you hire will really need cover from the elements. On rare occasions, bands will forgo a cover for themselves and their equipment but it’s not usually the case.
Wedding music acts need power
The need for proper shelter from the elements becomes even more important when there are electrics involved. Most experienced outdoor wedding duos like Talking with Fireworks (below), wedding bands, and wedding reception musicians will use a PA, lighting, or electric instruments such as guitars and if any rain, snow, or hail get into contact with them, we all know what can happen…pop, bang, game over! At the very least, your wedding musicians must stop performing and take shelter. No one wants that!
How to solve the weather issue
It’s best to first ask your wedding venue if they can supply adequate cover for your wedding entertainers as most good wedding venues should be able to help. Otherwise, you’ll need to see if your wedding band or wedding musician can supply cover as sometimes they can. Your last resort is to hire a gazebo which nowadays come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and prices!
2. Power supply
With your live wedding bands or solo/duo wedding musicians’ need for power comes the need for ample access to power, plug sockets, and good quality extension cables that can reach from indoors to outdoors. You won’t find many wedding venues with power sockets outside so you’re going to have to source power for that beautiful live wedding music from indoors. It’s simple enough to sort as a minimum of 2 to 4 13 amp feed plug sockets are usually needed by most wedding acts.
Generators and marquee weddings
If you want to read about all this in a bit more detail, including how this all relates when using a generator at your wedding, have a look at our guide on howlive wedding bands perform at a marquee wedding.
How to solve the power issue
Again, your wedding venue should have extension cables or at the very least suitable power sockets for your wedding music band or performer to use. If not, I would hope that the wedding act you booked has plenty of extension cables. Our wedding acts always do so make sure to ask yours to see if they do too! Bear in mind that extension cables rarely stretch farther than 20 metres and aren’t the cheapest purchase if you’re thinking you may have to buy some.
3. Performance space and acoustics
While you discuss cover and power options for your wedding musicians your venue should have hopefully pointed out the area in which they will perform for you outside. If you are given a choice of locations I’d always advise going for the largest, best sounding, and of course, most beautiful location! Stunning location, great acoustics and ample space for your acoustic duo or band to perform in will mean you get the best out of themand your outdoor wedding or ceremony.
How to solve the performance space issue
Even compact little duos like Fourteen Summers (above) need a decent space to perform in so if you know you want outdoor live wedding music, make sure you check out where your wedding act would be performing at any venues on your shortlist. Space and excellent acoustics are what’s important to any live wedding act so if your venue can manage that you’re onto a winner. You may find the guide below very useful right now too.
This is rarely a problem as wedding venues should be pointing out any sound restrictions they have from the off, but always check to see if live music is allowed outdoors at your chosen wedding venue. Even fully acoustic acts like Encore (below) generate a fair bit of noise and some venues have highly restrictive sound limits in place. If you are concerned about this read our popular guide on sound limiters at wedding venues to get all the answers.
How to solve sound restriction issues
It can be tough to solve this issue if your wedding venue has incredibly restrictive sound limits so just make sure you know of any restrictions they do have before booking with them or hiring any live wedding act. If a wedding venue has a sound limit that is below 90DB you will struggle to have any live music unless it’s something suitably quiet like a harpist but speak to any act you are thinking of hiring and discuss any sound restrictions with them. Again, read our guide on sound limiters for all the essential information, tips, and tricks.
5. Performance stage
I often get asked if our wedding bands need stages to perform on and although they aren’t essential when performing outdoors, I highly recommend them. At the very least a floor covering of some kind is important as you guessed it, that nasty English weather can rear its ugly head and cause all sorts of problems. It also just looks a bit fancier right?
How to solve the stage issue
Speaking to your wedding venue and wedding band or performer should get you the answers you need as most wedding venues have stages and most wedding bands should have some form of mat (or drum mat) that they can use. They may even have a stage so get asking! Every single drummer here at Seventh Second brings a large drum mat to gigs and they can work well for outdoor situations.
6. Your wedding theme
It’s not strictly speaking something on the checklist but it’s always important to consider how a band performing outside will look in and around your wedding theme. I know you spend a lot of time carefully planning the look and feel of your wedding so make sure that the place your wedding act will perform suits your theme and can fit your act in comfortably. Throughout this guide, there are examples of our outdoor wedding acts at various stunning weddings so hopefully, that gives you some ideas and inspiration!
Roam or go home…
You could always simply hire a roaming acoustic wedding band like Acoustic Captain (above) who don’t need any space to perform and simply wander around your wedding entertaining everyone! As well as loads of great outdoor acoustic wedding acts, we have roaming acts so just ask usabout it, we’re here to help!
Planning an outdoor wedding abroad?
If you are having your wedding aboard chances are you won’t have to worry quite so much about English weather but it’s always worth checking all the points mentioned above with your wedding venue. I simply can’t stop helping all you future married couples out there as yep, you guessed it, we have a guide all about hiring a live wedding band for your wedding abroad. It’s a great read.
That’s it from me
I hope this guide has proved useful and you know exactly how to go about hiring and most importantly, enjoying some live wedding entertainment at your outdoor wedding or wedding ceremony. When properly planned, outdoor weddings and complimentary live music really can’t be topped and I’ve certainly had some of my most enjoyable live wedding gigs outdoors! Poorly planned or left to the last minute, music at your outdoor wedding can end in disaster but stick to my 6 points and you’ll be absolutely fine.
If you loved the look of any of the wedding acts shown in today’s guide or like the look of any of our othersherewhy not enquire about them orcontact usto see if they are available to perform at your outdoor wedding or wedding ceremony? We’re here 7 days a week, 10 am to 10 pm via text, live chat, email, all the socials, or phone to answer any questions, help in any way and most importantly, design your dream wedding entertainment!
Have a fantastic wedding and if you enjoyed what you read today or know someone who’s planning an outdoor wedding please consider sharing this guide.