Sounding Off - All about Audio at your Wedding

For anyone who has been paying attention, or who knows me, Audio is not something I am really qualified to talk much about! I'm not going to get into specifics about what gear you should have at your wedding, exactly. Also, this will not be a step by step tutorial on how to get great audio on your video. But I will cover some points you may not have been aware of, and maybe it will help your wedding go just a little bit better.

I am a video producer, and weddings is what I do the most of, so I have a little bit of experience with sound. Often, I don't get involved in the planning stage of a wedding until its really too late to be of help. Let me explain what I mean by that!

While I am often booked several months before the wedding, wedding planning is a bit isolated I think. For example, as a video producer, I may have never worked at a specific location before, or with a specific photographer, or a specific DJ before. Sometimes the first time any of us vendors have met is at the event, the day of the wedding. So you'll see sort of a side meeting, where we go over our ground rules. Things like "Please don't stand on my speaker wires" or "Don't stand in front of me when I'm taking pictures", etc. Photo and Video are obviously going to try to get the same shots, so it sometimes is good to know where we're going to be standing and so on.

I'm going off topic here, just a little bit, so hang in there! I'm actually trying to get some of the local vendors I work with sometimes to form some kind of an association. We could offer some price breaks to the customer if they hire several vendors who are working together. It should be a Win Win, right? The customer saves some money, and the vendors work together better because they know each other from other jobs. We all know what to expect, and live is good.

Ok, back to Audio at your wedding. I'm going to try and do this in order, and give some bits of experience as I go.

Rehearsal: One of the reasons you even have a rehearsal is so that everyone knows what to do, where to go, and to work out any kinks. I figured it out really early that it is in my best interest as a photographer or video producer (I do both, but not at the same time!) to be at the rehearsal. Even if we know that the bridesmaids will never hit their marks, at least we know where they should be! I might even be able to point out a problem area that we can change. It gives me a chance to see what locations might work for me to put cameras at. I get an idea of what the lighting will be like at the location, and often rehearsals are at the same time as the wedding. So you might even get to check lighting!

This is my point. The bride has picked out music for each part of the processional. They want to do the slow walk down the aisle, they have 7 bridesmaids, and 3 flower girls, etc. Here is when you will find out if that song is really long enough. This leads into the next point, which seems very obvious after the fact. Either have the DJ there to actually play the CD for you, so he knows what song to play when, or at the very least bring a portable CD player so you can test the music. Another point here. Have you ever noticed how big the gear is that a DJ has? The speakers are a LOT bigger than what most of us have at home. They have power amps. They have a lot of accessories. Sure, some of it just looks impressive, but it also works very good for what it does. If a DJ could get great sound out of a boom box, I'm thinking he might be tempted to do it. A boom box sounds pretty good in your apartment. It will not be loud enough to hear from across the room in a normal wedding location, and expecially outside. Go try it out, I'll wait. I'm serious! I did a wedding a few years ago, at a park. The groom had a very nice stereo at home, big speakers, etc. He was very proud of it, I'm sure! He brought it to the park for use during the ceremony, and then it was also used at the reception. I was about 100 feet from where they set up the stereo for the ceremony. I could barely hear the music! The biggest reason, because I've asked some DJs about this, is that in a room, you hear the music bouncing around off the walls. Its kind of like a small light bulb in a closet. The light bounces off the walls, and your eyes see the combined effect, almost like 20 lights. You take that same light outside, or that same stereo, and it just goes away from you. Plus you have some wind outside, or some trees and birds and so on.

Beyond the music, is the actual spoken word. At the very least, the audience expects to hear the person who is performing the ceremony. Most weddings now have the preacher / officiant speaking into a microphone, such as a wireless lav or even a regular mic on a stand. Depending on the location, I often will put a wireless lav mic on the groom, so I can hear the vows on the video. If I'm able, I'll talk to the church PA person and get a wire hooked into the sound system, so I can also record from their mic. Or you may have the DJ doing "sound reinforcement" at the ceremony, where they supply the speakers and mic. I always make it a point to make friends with the sound people when possible! It makes my job so much easier!

One of the complaints I hear from guests at a wedding though, is they couldn't hear what was said at the ceremony. Something I've heard said lately, and I believe it to be absolutely true, if you're watching TV, and the picture is not so great, but if you can at least hear the audio, you can figure it out. Pretty soon you get used to it. But try the opposite, get great picture and mute the sound, and its not nearly so interesting. We rely on sound much more than we realize!

Ok, now on to the reception. This is where the DJ really gets to show off, right? They have the dance floor, the speakers, the light show, the dance tracks, a great mic to introduce the new couple when they make the entrance. Maybe even a Master of Ceremonies. Life is good, right?

Here is something to think about. You will have guests who have traveled from far away to be at your wedding. If you are the Bride or Groom, odds are you will not have more than a few minutes to talk to anyone, if at all. Its a long day, you're pretty excited, but already getting tired. You've had pictures. More pictures. Too many pictures! That dress is making it hard to breathe, you can't walk around between chairs with out knocking people over or getting tangled. So at best, you get to say Hi and thanks for coming. That's fine, most guests will understand. So they'll start visiting with other people they've not seen for a while, get caught up and so on. Here's the catch. The DJ, with all the awesome speakers, has the dance track running at about 9.5, and the guests are either screaming at each other, or have given up on converstation. Some of us are used to life at the club, we go dancing, we smile a lot at people who might be talking to us, but we have no idea what they're saying. But others just get a headache and go home!

Maybe just find a balance, have the DJ play his music at 7.5 until people get into the dance mood or something. But at least look around the reception, I'll bet you there are 12 people dancing, and 240 people trying to learn sign language!

Aren't weddings fun?

Thanks for reading!

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Carlin