Top Tips to help plan for your ceremony

At smaller wedding ceremonies with thirty guests or less, you may not need a sound system at all. But even with smaller weddings, you may still need to amplify the ceremony if the bride or groom have soft voices or if your location is outdoors. Here noise from traffic or wind in the trees can badly interfere with the ceremony being heard .In addition to amplifying the ceremony you may also want a system to play music on before, during and directly after the ceremony

“The bottom line is, If you think you might need amplification, you probably do.”

In general you wont need a massive sound system unless you’re having a wedding with over 500 guests or if you have a large band or you want to play loud music, a relatively small sound system with speakers on stands will be fine.

While some brides think that speakers and microphones can get ruin how their carefully planned wedding looks, Don’t worry  we will work hard to keep the equipment as low-profile as possible. Most agree that a microphone isn’t really that distracting and it is much less distracting than having the ceremony ruined by guests not being able to hear.

Here is some background into what sound equipment you will need for your Wedding Ceremony 

Don’t worry if this all sounds a bit technical. When you have me sorting it out for you, as long as you tell me what you want to happen, if I say it can  be done then if you say yes to us it will happen.

Who Will Need a Microphone in Your Wedding Ceremony?

It looks and sounds better when you have a lapel microphone each for:–

• The officiant/minister (person performing the wedding ceremony)
• The bride
• The groom.

A stand microphone  for the friends and family who will be  doing readings or speaking .This could be a radio microphone or a fixed microphone at a lectern.

Microphones to suit any musicians and singers you have performing

Microphones can be shared, but it’s not what I recommend, as it means passing them about . 

There are 4 different types of microphones you can consider using:

• Handheld Microphone: This is the microphone that you see on a stand or being held by a performer . The radio version is good because it can be put on a stand behind a lectern or handed around between friends and family who will be doing readings or speaking.

• Clip-On Lapel Microphone: Sometimes known as a lavaliere microphones are inconspicuous microphones that are very small and can be clipped on clothing or sometimes in the hair line. A tiny wire goes from the microphone to the transmitter pack which you can put in your pocket or clip to your belt. I have made some other arrangements to mount the pack in other places for brides with tight bodices on their dresses so the pack is still invisible
• Head set microphone  These microphones have a big advantage over Lapel microphones as they stay a short fixed distance from the users mouth but ar still are inconspicuous. Because of this fixed short distance, the volume and clarity of the sound is far better  as with the lapel microphone a tiny wire goes from the microphone to the transmitter pack which you can put in your pocket or clip to your belt. I have made some other arrangements to mount the pack in other places for brides with tight bodices on their dresses so the pack is still invisible
• Pencil type Condenser Microphone: They are similar to the hand held microphone but look like a thin cylinder abut 800 mm long and 20 mm in diameter . These microphones are great for amplifying  acoustic instruments in great detail

I always recommend you always opt to use wireless microphone connections . This  avoids cables to them  getting in the way.

How many speakers  Will you need for Your Wedding Ceremony?

For most ceremony the minimum I recommend is a pair of speakers one each side at the front on stands 

This is fine if you do not have a deep area to cover  and the  bride, groom,celebrant and any other people taking part are well miked up

For  ceremonies which have more than 50 guests , or the area they are in is  deeper than 15 mts you need a second set of speakers at the sides at the half way point to cover the rear section 

to provide the best intelligibility it is best if the rear speakers have the signal going into them delayed so the sound coming out of them and the sound coming from the front speakers arrive at the listeners at the rear of the area at the same time

For  ceremonies in spaces with unusual shapes or where relayed sound and video link is required we can provide optimum solutions to do this but we would have to go into more detail with you to tel you what is going to be needed  ,

What sort of mixer will you need for Your Wedding Ceremony?

For simple ceremonies the minimum you will need is a small desk with 4 microphone inputs and a stereo line input

This will let you connect the 3 lapel radio microphones for the bride, groom and celebrant and the microphone for the other guests who are giving readings along with a further input for a tablet  or phone for playing incidental music.

For  ceremonies where there are other musical presentations , the additional channels on  desk will be dependant on this, we can provide the optimum solutions to provide for these this but we would have to go into more detail with you to be able to tell  you what is going to be needed  ,

I can provide equipment from Crown , Yamaha, Soundcraft, Midas and all the major  manufacturers

After you have tied the knot at the ceremony the festivities begin with your wedding breakfast. What sound equipment must you have for this?

 The reasons behind having a professional sound system for this part of the celebration are the same as for the ceremony, there is no pint in the father of the bride, the groom and the best man spending hours writing their speeches if the guests can’t hear them. There is also a high probability you are going to want to play some back-ground music during the breakfast and that either the father of the bride, the groom and the best man are going to want to play some videos with a sound track as part of their speech

The system for this part of the day usually needs to be a bit more powerful as the background noise from guests talking can be much higher than during the ceremony its self.  1 hand held radio microphone is generally sufficient, as there tends to only be one person speaking at a time and the microphone can easily be past between them.

You may need additional microphones during the wedding breakfast though, if you have a musician playing  who does not have a suitable PA themselves