Herts Wedding String Duo at Letchworth Hall Hotel – Last Sunday, the Manor House String Duo performed for a wedding held at Letchworth Hall Hotel, in Letchworth.

It was a big day as altogether we were required to play for over four hours, spread over almost six hours – so although we had plenty of breaks, it was quite a long play. We began by providing some calming music before the bridal entrance. The ceremony music itself was a mixture of traditional and contemporary pieces, with Pachelbel’s Canon and Handel’s Hornpipe, but ‘All You Need Is Love’ to accompany the couple’s exit at the end. After the ceremony, the guests retired to the bar area where we played during the drinks reception. After a short break, we were asked to play again after the speeches.

Overall, this was a very good example of using live music cleverly for all the key points through the day. If we had been asked to perform continuously for six hours, this would have been quite tiring for the players and guests alike, but by building in breaks between periods of playing, it still kept a fresh feel and as we only charge a nominal fee of £10 per hour per musician for ‘waiting’ between periods of playing, it is a way of having music present for all the important parts of the day but keeping cost of a string quartet or duo down by us taking short breaks (such as during speeches).