Wedding Entertainment Ideas

    Discover Your Dream Entertainment

    Looking for wedding entertainment inspiration and don't know where to start? Read on to discover musicians to perform the perfect romantic accompaniment to your wedding ceremony, entertainers to add cheer to your afternoon drinks and bands to get everyone dancing at your evening reception, plus a few unique ideas if you're after something a little different to surprise your guests.

    Here at Entertainment Nation we've got years of experience in helping happy couples plan perfect entertainment for their wedding. We represent hundreds of the UK's best professional wedding entertainers, musicians and bands, so you're sure to discover your dream entertainment here.

    So, sit back, pour yourself a glass of something cold (or make yourself a brew if you're at work...) and browse our recommendations. Our friendly, expert advisers are here when you need them - every day via email and phone. If you've got any questions or need any advice or suggestions, give us a shout and we'll be happy to help.

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    Looking for wedding entertainment inspiration and don't know where to start? Read on to discover musicians to perform the perfect romantic accompaniment to your wedding ceremony, entertainers to add cheer to your afternoon drinks and bands to get everyone dancing at your evening reception, plus a few unique ideas if you're after something a little different to surprise your guests.

    Here at Entertainment Nation we've got years of experience in helping happy couples plan perfect entertainment for their wedding. We represent hundreds of the UK's best professional wedding entertainers, musicians and bands, so you're sure to discover your dream entertainment here.

    So, sit back, pour yourself a glass of something cold (or make yourself a brew if you're at work...) and browse our recommendations. Our friendly, expert advisers are here when you need them - every day via email and phone. If you've got any questions or need any advice or suggestions, give us a shout and we'll be happy to help.

    Evening Reception Wedding Entertainment

    Dessert's been polished off and the speeches are done (breathe a sigh of relief) - all that's left to do now is dance your way into married life! Your choice of wedding reception entertainment should reflect what you're like as a couple: feel-good acoustic folk, raucous rock and indie, sparkling soul and Motown, cutting-edge chart tunes - there's a band or DJ to complement every occasion. The professional acts you'll find here at Entertainment Nation are not only exceptional performers, they also supply high quality equipment to ensure your wedding reception party looks and sounds spectacular.

    Featured Evening Reception Wedding Entertainment

    The Willowbrooks Listing
    The Willowbrooks
    From £1915
    The Willowbrooks Listing Content
    • Outstanding folk-style 4-piece pop & rock band
    • Wedding band based in Rutland
    • Phenomenal male lead vocals
    • Vocals, guitar, sax, bass and drums as standard
    • Pop, rock, folk, indie & soul with a folky twist
    • Acoustic solo and trio sets available
    • Available UK wide
    Ultraglow Listing
    Ultraglow
    From £2982
    Ultraglow Listing Content
    • High-calibre 6-piece house & pop band
    • Wedding band based in West Midlands
    • Sensational female & male lead vocals
    • Two lead vocalists, keys, sax, bass & drums
    • House, pop, RnB, drum & bass, garage & more
    • Evening DJ, sax & percussion sets available
    • Late finish available
    Neon State Listing
    Neon State
    From £2030
    Neon State Listing Content
    • Fresh & exciting dual-fronted 4-piece band
    • Wedding band based in London
    • Stellar male & female lead vocals
    • Vocals, guitar, bass and drums
    • The best of pop, rock, soul & RnB
    • Afternoon acoustic duo set available
    • Available Mids, East & South

    Wedding Ceremony Music

    Whether you're sticking with tradition or planning a more modern affair, your choice of wedding ceremony entertainment will enhance the romance of your big moment. Classical music from a string quartet, pianist, harpist or singer is a timelessly elegant choice, while a tender ballad from an acoustic singer-songwriter-style performer is perfect for contemporary couples. Why not blend the modern and traditional with a classical arrangement of your favourite romantic song?

    Featured Ceremony Entertainment & Walk Down Aisle Musicians

    Sundream Strings Listing
    Sundream Strings
    From £865
    Sundream Strings Listing Content
    • Professional string quartet
    • Wedding string quartet based in London
    • Breath-taking 4-piece
    • Rock, pop, Bollywood, jazz and classical
    • Extremely talented musicians
    • Solo, duo and trio options
    • Available nationwide
    Abigail Cassidy Listing
    Abigail Cassidy
    From £665
    Abigail Cassidy Listing Content
    • Stunning female vocalist
    • Wedding singer based in Kent
    • Solo vocals with guitar and piano
    • Classic pop and jazz standards
    • Bespoke song package available
    • Over 10 years of experience
    • Available UK wide
    Oli Cave Listing
    Oli Cave
    From £732
    Oli Cave Listing Content
    • Outstanding acoustic soloist
    • Wedding singer and guitarist based in Somerset
    • Soulful male vocalist and guitarist
    • Pop & rock hits, soul and Motown
    • Talented and dynamic performer
    • Years of professional experience
    • Available nationwide

    Drinks Reception & Daytime Wedding Entertainment

    The time between your ceremony and wedding breakfast is your chance to mingle with friends and family, glass of champagne in hand, free from the pre-ceremony jitters. Live music works well to maintain a mellow mood, with classical music, jazz and laid-back "live lounge" covers being popular choices. Magicians and caricaturists are great options to keep your wedding guests entertained before the main evening celebrations kick off.

    Featured Drinks Reception & Daytime Wedding Entertainment

    Burnham & Frisco Listing
    Burnham & Frisco
    From £931
    Burnham & Frisco Listing Content
    • Exceptional acoustic rock duo
    • Wedding duo based in Hertfordshire
    • Two first-class male vocalists and melodic guitars
    • Rock hits, pop favourites, blues & folk classics
    • Highly experienced & reliable musicians
    • 5 piece band sets available
    • Available UK wide
    LILA Listing
    LILA
    From £550
    LILA Listing Content
    • Captivating acoustic soloist
    • Wedding singer and guitarist based in Nottinghamshire
    • Outstanding female vocals with guitar
    • RnB, pop, soul, jazz and Motown
    • Laidback acoustic covers
    • 10 years of performance experience
    • Available UK wide
    Juniper Jazz Listing
    Juniper Jazz
    From £898
    Juniper Jazz Listing Content
    • Stylish jazz trio
    • Wedding band based in Greater London
    • Superb female lead vocals
    • Vocals, guitar & trumpet/flugelhorn
    • Jazz standards, funk, soul and pop
    • Duo performances also available
    • Available UK wide

    Quirky, Unusual & Unique Wedding Entertainment

    In search of unique wedding ideas to make your reception stand out? Here's a few original and alternative wedding entertainment ideas that'll delight your guests and give your special day a quirky touch: interrupt your wedding breakfast with a surprise sing-along, astound your guests with a roaming performance from your band, summon the spirit of the swing years with a postmodern pop band or light up your evening party with an Ibiza-inspired DJ live act.

    Featured Quirky, Unusual & Unique Wedding Entertainment

    Fat Cats Listings
    The Fat Cats
    From £2500
    The Fat Cats Listing Content
    • Rock'n'roll band
    • Wedding band based in Northamptonshire
    • 5 piece band
    • Male lead singer
    • Authentic rock'n'roll & modern tunes with a vintage spin
    • 3-piece line up also available
    • Available nationwide
    Shhhow Singers Listing
    Shhhow Singers
    From £658
    Shhhow Singers Listing Content
    • Singing Waiters
    • Wedding singer based in London
    • 1 male vocalist as standard
    • Option to add additional vocalists
    • Classical, pop and swing songs
    • Add surprise and laughter to your day!
    • Available UK wide
    Magnette DJs Listing
    Magnette DJs
    From £951
    Magnette DJs Listing Content
    • Dynamic DJ and live drummer
    • Wedding DJ based in Merseyside
    • Professional and talented DJ and musician
    • Chart hits, hip hop, soul and dance
    • Over 10 years experience
    • Add sax, trombone, vocals and guitar
    • Available UK wide

    Wedding Entertainment FAQs

    The average cost of wedding entertainment depends upon the style of wedding entertainment you choose and when and where you're getting married. Prices can range from a few hundred pounds for a solo act like a singer-acoustic-guitarist or magician to £1,000 upwards for a 4-5 piece wedding band. In general, the more members in the act, the more you can expect to pay. Hiring wedding entertainment near you can help you save money on travel expenses.

    You should book your wedding entertainment as far in advance as possible! The most popular wedding bands and performers often fill their diaries up to two years in advance (sometimes even farther ahead), especially during the peak wedding season spring/summer weekends. If you find an act you love, snap them up as soon as possible to avoid missing out.

    Plan your wedding entertainment with your guests and your venue in mind.

    Ideally, you'll know the location of your wedding prior to planning the entertainment. Hiring your venue first means you'll be able to visualise the sort of entertainment that'll fit the setting and know about any performance or space restrictions the venue has in place. With a date and venue secured, you'll also be able to get the most accurate quotes if you're planning on hiring professional entertainment.

    While it's important that you fall in love with your chosen entertainment, you also need to consider who'll be attending and what they'll be doing during each part of the day. Are you hiring wedding ceremony musicians? Consider keeping them on to perform for guests while you have photographs taken. Are there a couple of hours to spare between your ceremony and the wedding breakfast? A performance from an acoustic duo or a close-up magician could be just the thing to keep guests occupied during these quieter moments. Are you hiring a wedding band? Your evening wedding reception music is another decision where you should consider the ages and tastes of your guests - you'll want to add your personal touch while still giving everyone something to get down to on the dance floor!

    If you've never planned live entertainment before (and who has?!), all this can seem daunting, but there's no need to fret - a good entertainment agency will have encountered almost any wedding planning pitfall possible and can offer you all the advice and guidance you need to plan wedding entertainment that runs smoothly and without fuss.

    There are two school of thought on this one. The first is to spend hours meticulously viewing as many acts as possible so you can be certain you've found the perfect act to fit your wedding, your theme and your identity as a couple. The second is to go with your gut - sometimes you'll see a band, and like in love, you just know they're the one for you. Either approach works.

    We'd always urge you to do a little extra research once you've found your ideal wedding entertainment; does the act have great reviews? How about the agency you're booking from? Is payment secure? Are there contracts in place tying the act to your event? A reputable act or agency will be able to reassure you on all these questions.

    Whatever you can imagine, there's an act out there who can do it! Wedding entertainment has come a long way in recent years. Enormous demand for live entertainment at weddings has drawn the best young musicians into the industry, who've brought with them a melting pot of musical genres. The styles of wedding entertainment on offer include:

    • Rock and Pop Bands
    • Modern Pop, RnB and Dance Bands
    • Acoustic Folk-Pop Bands
    • Soul, Funk, Disco and Motown Bands
    • Jazz and Swing Bands
    • Rat Pack and Big Bands
    • Indie, Britpop and Pop-Punk Bands
    • Bandeoke / Rockaoke Bands
    • Tribute Bands
    • Vintage-Themed Bands
    • Rock 'n' Roll Bands

    And that's just the bands! Other musicians and entertainers for you to consider include:

    • Acoustic Solos and Duos
    • Pro DJs
    • DJ Live Acts
    • Singing Waiters
    • String Quartets
    • Pianists
    • Sax Players
    • Harpists
    • Singers and Choirs
    • Magicians
    • Caricaturists

    This all depends on you and your wedding!

    Live bands bring spectacle, charisma and buckets of atmosphere; even the sounds of a band tuning up are enough to set the anticipation flowing for an evening of wild celebrations. Plus, most bands will put on a DJ service between their sets to keep up the energy on the dance floor.

    DJs meanwhile are ideal if you want more control over the music you'll be hearing. A good band will know a decent number of songs, but a DJ has access to almost any song ever recorded... and they take requests, so you can customise your night on the fly. If your venue has limited space or a sound limiter set below 90DB, a DJ is a great choice to work around these restrictions while still giving an unforgettable night of entertainment.

    Why not combine the best of both worlds with a DJ and Live Musician act? Bringing Balearic vibes, these exciting performers feature DJ sets enhanced with live sax, vocals, percussion, guitar, or horns for a thrilling superclub experience.

    Recent Reviews

    "We booked the band SMOOTHIE through EN for our wedding reception, and the whole process was made really easy from start to finish! The agency took care of all the contracts quickly, and SMOOTHIE got in touch with us personally about a month before the big day to make sure everything was on track. They learned out first dance song in record time (and not one of the usual songs that everyone knows either!), and on the day they were super professional and friendly. They loaded in and setup quickly and quietly, and then got everyone inside and on the dancefloor despite the incredibly hot evening. They had a great setlist, played superbly and made sure we all had a great night dancing! Thank you SMOOTHIE, highly recommended!"
    Robert - Wedding - Cambridgeshire
    "From our first inquiry with Entertainment Nation they were professional and so helpful. The process for booking a band was so easy. Any questions we had were answered quickly. As for Hatchland, they are absolutely brilliant. All the guys in the band are lovely, friendly and they gave an amazing performance that we and our wedding guests loved. The singers voice is so good! Their setlist was perfect! It's an easy 5 out of 5, would recommend to everyone! We loved them!"
    David - Wedding - Gloucestershire
    "5 Star performance all round! From day one it was very easy to search through the options on the website and see who we liked and who was available and the booking process was quick and very easy to run through. As for the band themselves, what can I say other than Foxland where amazing! They were everything we hoped they would be and more. They delivered a truly amazing couple of sets for us and made the first dance feel so special. On top of that they were genuinely a lovely group of very friendly guys who were more than happy to have a chat with you and join in the fun of the evening and helped make the day so special for us all. So many of our guests commented on how good they were and how much fun they made the evening! I would happily recommend them to anyone!!"
    Daniel - Wedding - Nottinghamshire
    "Entertainment Nation have great support with booking and organising our wedding band. They were so responsive through the way, which really put us at ease. The booking process was also really simple. In terms of Wildcard, they were fantastic on the day. They played a great mix of classics and modern floorfillers, which got everyone at our wedding dancing all night long. They sound even better live than they do on the videos, and all our guests were so complimentary of the band. They were also really flexible around timings and set up, in line with the rest of our wedding schedule. We would recommend both Wildcard and Entertainment Nation"
    Carson - Wedding - South Scotland
    "Entertainment Nation make the process of sourcing and booking entertainment for your event extremely easy. We booked an amazing band (called California Waiting) through their site for our wedding just gone, and all our guests were highly complimentary about the band and how good the evening had been. If I hadn't seen Entertainment Nation advertised through social media, I wouldn't have been able to find this band and throw such a great party. Thanks guys for delivering such an awesome service."
    Ryan - Wedding - South Yorkshire
    "We booked the Bowermen for our wedding. Entertainment Nation were amazing to work with and always responded in a timely manner with all the info the band required and the requests/time frame we had proposed. It could not have been easier to book and organise the band for the day. The band were simply incredible, I have never been to a party where everyone has got up to dance, but these guys managed to get everyone dancing! Even our older relatives! They are an extremely talented group and absolutely made the evening for us. They also controlled a playlist for us in between sets and played our first dance song via Spotify too so we didn't have to worry about getting it all set up. The style of music they play was perfect for us and our guests. I knew they would be good when we booked them, but they completed exceeded expectations. To the Bowermen - you have our greatest thanks for a wonderful evening to end our perfect day. I would highly recommend booking them, they do not disappoint. Thanks again from J&A"
    Joanne - Wedding - Cheshire

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    Entertainment Nation
    Company Number: 07406359

    Phone: 0800 53 000 35

    Email: info@entertainment-nation.co.uk

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