Booking a string quartet for just the wedding ceremony.
On the whole, quite a large proportion of string quartets have a ‘minimum booking period’ of at least 2 or 3 hours, particularly for peak Saturdays over the summer months. This is simply because in the busiest and best string quartets, all four musicians will not only be in demand for the quartet itself, but [...]
Wedding timings, sunshine, rain and high winds!
Despite the best laid plans for the day itself, if you’ve booked a string quartet for your wedding reception with your guests coming straight from the church or registry office, do allow a generous amount of time for the move between venues. Although you might have envisaged that 5 minute drive taking everyone no more [...]
Hiring a string quartet? Getting value for money
The next few blog entries are going to be a series of articles about various ways of keeping costs within budget and also gaining the maximum impact from hiring a professional string quartet for a wedding.
Overall, if clients are looking for quality, the cost of a string quartet can be a significant chunk of a wedding [...]
Wedding at Wivenhoe House
On Saturday we had quite a long drive to go and play at Wivenhoe House Hotel near Colchester in Essex. The hotel itself is an 18th century building which is within the grounds of Essex University, and it used to be the headquarters of the SAS!
Despite the patch of variable weather we’ve had over the last [...]
Wedding at the Swiss Gardens
On Friday we returned once more to the Swiss Gardens at Old Warden in Bedfordshire to play for a wedding. Whereas our concert in June was for a full string quartet, this time we played as a string duo. In many ways, the little rustic cottage on the hill where the weddings take place is [...]
Weddings at Heythrop Park
On Saturday, we were pleased to return once again to perform for another wedding at Heythrop Park. This wedding venue is set amongst miles of beautiful countryside with unspoiled view of the Oxfordshire countryside to the front and back of the building.
We were hired to play for the drinks reception and wedding breakfast. As it was a fine [...]
Wedding at Highgate House
This Saturday we were pleased once again to return to Highgate House - a wedding venue very near to Northampton where we play several times a year.
Although we’ve played many times at Highgate as a full string quartet, this particular wedding was a more intimate gathering of around 70 guests and a string duo was [...]
Playing for outdoor weddings and events
Just had another busy weekend where we played for two weddings and a birthday party. Despite the weather being a bit unsettled, we still managed to play outdoors on Friday when we returned for another wedding at Notley Abbey near Aylesbury.
Although the wedding ceremony was outdoors, by law the registration process (signing the register etc) has to be conducted under a [...]
Last minute weddings…..
Whereas over the last few years, we’ve usually found couples enquiring about a string quartet for their wedding several years in advance, with 2009 a year of financial uncertainty for many people, it seems that there’s a real trend at the moment for couples to put off booking a wedding until a few weeks beforehand- [...]
A busy bank holiday weekend….and a day in the life of a string quartet
It’s been a busy bank holiday weekend for us with three weddings, one was a wedding at Loseley Park near Guildford, the second wedding was at the Elvetham in Hampshire and a third (much nearer to home), was a wedding at Stowe House in Buckinghamshire.
All three had unique requests and in the case of the first two, [...]
