What is the proper music for a Sunday daytime wedding reception? My ideal is to hire a live band to play jazz music, but I am finding that live bands are quite pricey! Also, what other fun activities can I have aside from the traditional dancing and cake cutting? Please some ideas!
Hello and congrats on your wedding 
I am getting on a Sunday and I am planning a very fancy and elegant day. We are having the ceremony at noon and then a champagne brunch to follow. We are doing it at a very swanky French restaurant that only opens doors to private events.
Don’t forget, though, it is YOUR day and anything goes. There really is no proper, per se. I just had visions of this for me and would have done it whether my wedding was a Sunday afternoon or a Saturday evening.
I have hired a string quarted with a flutist ( it cost me $1000- but it was a priority to me to spend on this because I am a classical flutist myself- I am cutting corners elsewhere. They gave me a 25% discount too, since I studied with a well known flutist, but I would have paid full price ) They will play before the ceremony, during the ceremony and throughout the brunch.
Anyhow , following the ceremony will be mimosas, champagne, wine and kir royals and hors’doeuves on the garden terrace for our guests while we do photos, when we are done and make our entrance, we will mingle a bit more and then head to the main dining room a for a sit down plated brunch.
After everyone eats, we will do some toasts/well-wish speeches, then the cake cutting and dessert. New husband and I will leave around 4pm with an exit in a antique Bentley.
I just wanted an elegant day, fancy and foo foo. I am not a dancing kinda girl- at least not in my wedding dress- and the whole garter toss, chicken dance thing does not work for me. I think this will all make for a wonderful, memorable afternoon. We are also having a slide show running on a screen that my fiance is making on shutterfly.com of all our memories together with our friends. I figure everyone will get a laugh from that.
I would definitely try some local community colleges or bigger universities in your area for students who play. I tried to hire some from my alma mater, but they were too long in getting back to me so I hired the professionals. I guess ’cause it was summer a lot was closed for break. But you can book well in advance.
College juniors and seniors always need performance credit and are quite polished in their demeanor and could do a great job. Just make sure they have a big enough repritoir of music to play. Younger students may not have enough good pieces prepared. I , myself, played in many weddings when I was in college for just a hundred bucks and food or sometimes even for free.
PS: I just attended another wedding and they had these "activity" cards for the guests to fill out while waiting. They did not have a designated cocktail hour, so everyone arrived to the reception site, sat at their tables . It was entertaining to fill out these cards. They had plastic page protecotrs to put them in and they were collected and put in a binder to give to the bride and groom. The cards had all kinds of questions , pics to draw and advice to give to the newlyweds..It was a great filler and it allowed us to get to know those sitting at our table by sharing .They had markers and all kinds of fancy pens at the tables to write with. E-mail me if you want and I can give you all the details on this.
Good luck with your day.
BTW, you could always have just background music playing , all the jazz greats and I am sure that would be perfect too. I wil be having music played while my musicians are on break. If you do that you could pick all your favorites and it would be really special.
Wer are not doing a first dance either, seems like that would be kinda weird if no one else will be dancing.
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