We had the pleasure of playing for Andy and Müge’s gorgeous wedding at the stunning Henblas Country Park in North Wales last year, and continuing in our theme of running you through real weddings, we thought we’d take to this gorgeous venue! We had the absolute pleasure of working alongside the hugely talented Dewi from Fox and Bear Photography, whose pictures can be seen throughout the blog. It’s always an honour to work alongside him, for more information follow the link underneath the picture or head over to the website - www.foxandbearphotography.com. For more information on the other awesome suppliers we love to work with, why not have a look over on our ‘Friends’ page?
It was a stunning day when we arrived at Henblas Country Park. The venue is set in the heart of the Welsh countryside, located amongst 77 acres of Anglesey farmland, with incredible views across the Snowdonia mountains. We got there early at the venue, as Andy and Müge had booked our acoustic duo for the ceremony and drinks reception. They had done a beautiful job of decorating the room, with an incredible half-moon centerpiece taking up the middle of the ceremony space.
Looking out across the mountains - Fox and Bear
If you choose to have your civil ceremony at Henblas Country Park, you’ve got different choices for the rooms you can use. Andy and Müge had chosen to use a stunning room with windows at the back, giving a spectacular view of the Snowdonia mountain range, with clear skies, and some lovely horses in the fields in the farmland behind.
Andy and Müge's centerpiece for the ceremony - Fox and Bear Arriving early as always for us, we setup in great time! We love providing music for ceremonies, even though sometimes it can be a bit daunting - arriving early allows us to soundcheck and get used to the space. As musicians, we understand how much the room can affect the sound of what we’re doing, and we want to sound our best, especially in these intimate moments! We also want to make sure we’re in the best place visually - as we don’t want to distract from your day!
Once we’d finished soundchecking, we put on the background music provided through our free playlist service. As Andy and Müge had chosen to book us for the full day with the duo, it meant that we’d take care of the music from start to finish! After a quick chat and catchup with Andy before the ceremony, it was time for the guests to be seated, and the ceremony to begin. Andy and Müge had chosen an instrumental version of ‘A Thousand Years’ by Christina Perri for the bridal party to walk into, with one of us playing chords and one of us playing the melody. This was because the couple wanted to also use ‘A Thousand Years’ as their first dance later on, but they didn’t want to give the game away too much at this point in the day for their guests!
Our acoustic duo in the ceremony - Fox and Bear
As they signed the register, we also played an acoustic version of ‘Simply the Best,’ originally by Tina Turner, but at a more chilled pace! We always recommend having a couple of songs for the signing of the register, especially when it comes to civil ceremonies. Sometimes you only need one, other times you may need a couple depending on how long the photos take! Once the ceremony was wrapped up, we played Jack Johnson’s ‘Better Together,’ as Müge and Andy left the room as a married couple! This was a great choice as it’s a really well known song that puts everyone in a great mood as the room emptied, and the rest of the day continued.
After the ceremony, we headed outside to play for the drinks reception. With the acoustic duo ceremony package, we’ll also play up to an hour’s worth of live music after we’ve done the ceremony. As it was such a lovely day, we headed outside onto the porch area to entertain Andy and Müge's lovely guests in the sunshine.
Acoustic duo outside at Henblas Country Park - Fox and Bear
We headed in with the guests, after the drinks reception, as they entered Henblas for the wedding breakfast. We must say the food is absolutely fantastic here, and there were some great vegan options for the vegan members of the band! After the wedding breakfast, Andy and Müge moved onto the speeches. Henblas Country Park has some great wireless microphones that couples and their guests can use, meaning Andy and Müge didn’t need to borrow our microphones which we offer as part of the full-day package.
Once speeches had concluded, the other band members arrived to setup for the evening’s proceedings. As the wedding breakfast and the evening reception were taking place in the same room, it meant there was a small wait as we waited for the venue to clear the room before we could setup. Luckily, load in is so easy at Henblas, as it’s not far for bands to get their equipment into the room, making a great choice for live music for a wedding!
Tony doing his thing during the evening - Fox and Bear
Setup didn’t take long as it was so close for us to load in our equipment, meaning we could catch up some time lost due to the room turnaround. Andy and Müge had hired some dry ice / fog machines for the evening, meaning our lights looked great! Everything had an awesome haze to it! Soundcheck didn’t take long either, as the room’s acoustics were good to work with. Henblas Country Park doesn’t have a sound limiter either, but the venue had asked us to keep it at a ‘reasonable volume,’ as they don’t want to have one in the future!
Mikey rocking out behind the kit - Fox and Bear
Next on the agenda was first dance, but first we had our playlist service running in the background as evening guests arrived and caught up. We also took care of the cake cutting before the first dance - it’s great to do these events back to back, as you only have to get your guest’s attention once! As previously mentioned, Andy and Müge's first dance was ‘A Thousand Years’ however this time - it was the full band arrangement with vocals instead of the instrumental. We asked their guests to join the happy couple on the dance floor and then proceeded to go into our first party set! It’s always good to follow the first dance with one of our sets as it’s usually a point in the evening where the dancefloor is full and everyone is up for a party!
After the first of the 40 minute sets (that’s another advantage of the 3 x 40 minute set times - you’ve still got 2 sets to go!) it was time for the evening food, which was some incredible pizza, and again vegan band members were not left disappointed in the slightest! We really recommend having around an hour’s band break whilst the evening food is served as it gives people chance to catchup, have a drink, digest food and get ready for the party! Andy and Muge had selected to use their own spotify playlist which was played through our speakers during the breaks too, which is a service we’re more than happy to provide!
Not quite sure what Tom's face is doing in this one - Fox and Bear
The rest of the night was filled with awesome tunes we thought would best fill the dancefloor. Andy and Müge had recommended some requests that they wanted us to play, which we were happy to provide!
The end of the night came around much sooner than expected as we were having so much fun with the guests! We finished with ‘Tribute’ by Tenacious D which was again an awesome request that had guests playing air guitars, doing the silly voices and headbanging along with until the very end! Henblas Country Park has a live music cut off time of 11:30, but can have music going until midnight - we were happy to keep the party going with the playlist after we finished playing!
This was a stunning day playing live music at such a gorgeous venue as Henblas Country Park. We really enjoyed everything from providing live acoustic singing to the full live wedding band performance at the end of the night. And of course, it was a pleasure playing for Andy and Müge who were the loveliest couple.
If you have any questions or queries about live music at weddings in North Wales please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, we’re always happy to help! Don't forget to take a look at Henblas Country Park if you're looking for a stunning North Wales Wedding venue, and definitely check out Fox and Bear if you're after a photographer - their work is always awesome and it's a pleasure working with them!
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