Staffordshire Wedding Musicians
Stuart James Photography in an interview with Acoustic Duo BecKeny | Cannock Acoustic Duo
As I’ve discussed many times, including a whole feature on FacebookLive, I feel music can make a massive difference to an event.
From ensuring your guests are entertained, to guaranteeing the key moments are perfect, great musicians can lift a wedding!
Rather than relying on a well-curated playlist, or a CD at your venue, why not add in musicians to your wedding?
When we were getting married, the first things we booked were the venue, the photographer then the guitarist!
Great live music meant that much to us!
Live Music for Your Wedding
When you’re looking to add live music to your wedding day, there is so much choice! With options from harpists to string quartets, pianists and piano cello duos, singers and guitarists, or a combination of the above, you are spoiled for choice. Of course, it all comes down to matching the artist to your tastes, and to the style of your wedding!
Picking a duo with a comprehensive catalogue of styles and songs, can allow your act to blend into your day perfectly, and cater for everyone!
Indeed a strength that Becky + Ken from BecKeny Acoustic Duo has.
Cannock Acoustic Duo for your Staffordshire Wedding
I’ve known Becky and Ken for a good few years now, and have enjoyed many weddings working together with them. With the combination of Ken’s acoustic guitar and Becky’s original vocal, they fit right into every occasion – even making an effort to ensure their outfits compliment your wedding colours!
However, one thing I didn’t know, was how it all started, so I just had to ask:
Ken: “Well, I started learning guitar in my late forties, and we eventually teamed up to do an open mic night a few years after that. We did a couple of open mic nights, and it was suggested that we start to do professional gigs.”
Becky: “I was massively into musicals needs to come in and play sit at the piano every night and sing, and he would go up to the office and sit playing his guitar, completely separate. Then he started going to all these acoustic nights on his own. Eventually, he said why don’t you come along and sing that Over the Rainbow song? So we started off with literally one song. We just got really good feedback which kind of prompted us to attend more open mic nights, growing our confidence until somebody said: ‘would you do my wedding?’ We loved doing it. I love weddings. I love watching weddings. So to be part of somebody’s wedding is not only an honour, it’s amazing fun because I can get to watch everybody being naughty and it’s great. We have a right laugh!”
Enjoying what you do is so important – and I certainly agree – weddings are THE BEST occasions! Getting to do what you love, at the most fabulous events, surrounded by everyone enjoying themselves – what is there not to like?
Where live music is different for your wedding
Despite loving listening to live music, I always see real energy added to a wedding when there is live entertainment.
From entertaining your guests, to making sure your entrance is both beautiful and timed to perfection, a top musical act can transform your wedding.
Adding musicians to your day isn’t necessarily something you’d think about before, “it’s just something special that people notice almost afterwards and go that was amazing.
We would never have thought of booking wedding singers, but we’ve enjoyed you.” It’s certainly something that can fit fabulously into a wedding.
Being able to personalise a performance is terrific, literally changing styles or tack as the day flows to match your guests, and from talking to Becky I know she feels the same:
“When you’re flicking through your songbook and choosing what you want to play, you can tweak whatever. I’m quite good at judging the audience and what kind of mood they’re in: you look at the age range and think okay, there are some people that might enjoy some 50s and 60s music or there’s a young crowd just walked into the bar, we’ll place an Ed Sheeran track, so we really adjust what we play literally to the minute.”
Entertainment For Your Guests
Providing entertainment for your guests is a great way to ensure they have a great day too – in fact, I have a whole post coming about looking after your guests, make sure to stay tuned to the blog for that!
I loved the take from BecKeny on this too:
“Although we’re playing for the bride and groom and they’ve selected the particular songs that they like, the majority of it is aimed at their guests because the guests sometimes are just sitting or drinking, having a chat, where the photographer’s monopolising the bride.” – Some photographers may do this!! I’m in the other camp and get the photos captured quickly, so you are back enjoying your day with your guests, but I’ll let Becky off ;-)
Music for the big moments of the wedding!
There are naturally crucial moments of the day where you want to choose songs that connect with you, and I think that’s important. Selecting a song with meaning for the walking down the aisle, songs to enjoy as you’re signing the register and looking at your guests, to that fabulous moment of celebration as you walk out hand-in-hand, it’s so unique to choose the tracks that mean something to you!
“We spend the time just to get to know a couple a little bit beforehand. I have several phone calls with them where I will go through things. Like, have you got a specific song, certainly to walk down the aisle to. We asked them to choose all those songs, and they can choose from our current setlist or if they’ve got one and they go: ‘actually this is our favourite song, and you don’t currently do it’, we will learn it. 99% of the time we’ve managed to learn their special song, even down to we’ve had Disney requests, Metallica requests, some unusual ones. But if that’s what they want, and if that’s a personal song for them, then you can see them getting choked up by the song, and it ends up choking me.”
Without a doubt, Becky gets it, and you know she’ll be on that personal journey with you!
Attention to Detail from Your Wedding Suppliers
Receiving excellent service from your suppliers is a given! But it’s making an effort to go the extra mile, like checking your colour scheme and matching to you, that sets Becky and Ken apart. It’s not just finding out the songs you want, but talking about you and your day that allows a connection to be built, “so on the day you feel like you’re friends and you are just having a laugh with them”.
For me, the reason I love weddings so much are the people – you and your guests, and the relationships between you, observing and capturing you having the most fantastic time making memories together, it makes my job very special indeed.
It’s caring about every wedding, and getting excited with you, that gives us the connection to enjoy the day. From planning the timings to the colours, it’s attention to detail that elevates us as professionals and the service we all provide.
“I do think it’s always those little last-minute touches that maybe people don’t notice at the time, but they get to the end, and they say they were professional. We enjoyed them. They can’t maybe pinpoint exactly why they probably won’t notice at the time that we’re matching, but they look back on the photographs if we’re in the background and they’ll go, ‘oh wow, actually they match’, and it’s just those little things that people look back on and go, wow!”
Styles of Music for Your Wedding
As I mentioned at the start of this post, when you’re considering the type of musicians for your wedding, you have so much choice.
Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of capturing Acoustic Duos, Pianists, Violinists, Steel Drum Bands, a Dixie Land Band, Big Bands, to a Trombone Choir – I was playing in that one too, long story! – but you do have such a great choice!
With an acoustic duo such as BecKeny however, you’re not ‘pigeon-holed’ into one genre – they can quickly switch and change to suit your day as it evolves!
“We haven’t got a style! If people turn around to us and go we want lively music; we want more Jazzy stuff, then that’s what we can play. If they want more modern stuff, we can do that, if they want all 60’s stuff we can do, that because we’ve got the most ridiculously massive repertoire that we’ve built up over the years of people saying ‘can you do that?’ Whatever they want us to do, we can do, which is excellent!”
Top Tips for Your Wedding from BecKeny Acoustic Duo
As has become the tradition within these supplier features, I wanted to pick the brains of Becky and Ken, to gain a few fabulous tips to help when you’re planning your wedding!
Before I present the video of the full ‘top wedding tips’ section from Ken + Becky, I wanted to pull out a couple of the tips I feel were most powerful:
1- Throw away the rule book!
I LOVE this one from Becky! It’s your day, do it your way!!
2- Pick the venue that feels comfortable!
You want to feel yourselves there, and possibly more importantly, you want your guests to be comfortable too!
3- Don’t worry about the little things – nothing is ever perfect!
So right, and so important – plan everything, using the best suppliers you can find, but then on the day, kick back, relax and soak it all it while you have the best day possible!!
4- Keep those speeches short and sweet!
Such great advice! Especially if you have them before dinner! Your guests don’t want to be waiting hungrily for their food! Keep it short and sweet, and you’ll keep everyone happy!!
5- Remember everyone is there to support you!
No matter what happens, you have everyone there for you. Enjoy that, and don’t worry about things!!
6- Take a moment to appreciate how amazing your guests look!
It’s not just the main wedding party that go to extraordinary lengths, take a moment to appreciate your guests too – they all look amazing!
7 – THE BIGGEST ONE OF ALL – Take deep breaths and take it all in!
I promise you; the day will fly by so fast, it’s vital you take it in. Breathe it in. Soak it in. Enjoy it! It’s one day, that is so very very special!
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The Full Interview with Staffordshire Acoustic Duo
The full interview from our Facebook Live #MondayNightLive #SupplierFeature is here:
Where can you find out more about BecKeny Acoustic Duo
So you’ve read all about them, and you can hear them perform in the video interview below, but if you wanted to find out more, you are best to check them out on their Facebook Page where they update with new videos and news, and also check out where they’re appearing at local venues over the coming months on their website too!
Becky and Ken, I loved catching up, and sharing a little about you both and the fabulous way you think about and approach a wedding!
I wholeheartedly recommend you both, and look forward to the next wedding together :)
If you wanted to see more of the wedding featured in the photographs on this post, you could see Jacqui + Linda’s Lichfield Barn Wedding here.
