Wedding lighting and sound: a planner's guide from the ceremony to the last dance

Most wedding lighting and sound decisions get made from a kit list: a PA, some uplighters, a dance-floor package. It works better the other way round. A wedding is four different events in one day, in one or two rooms, and each one needs something different from the technical side. Plan the day first and the equipment follows.

This guide is for wedding planners and organisers, and the couples they work with. It covers what each part of the day actually needs, what a DJ or band already brings, the venue rules that catch people out, and the questions to ask before anything is booked.

Plan wedding lighting and sound around the day, not the kit

A typical wedding runs ceremony, drinks reception, wedding breakfast with speeches, then the evening. Each has its own sound and lighting job.

• Ceremony. Every guest hears the vows and the readings. Music plays on cue for the entrance, the signing and the exit.
• Drinks reception. Background music at a level people can talk over. Often outdoors, so battery power and weather cover matter.
• Wedding breakfast and speeches. The speeches are the part of the day people talk about afterwards. They must be heard at the back of the room without the speaker having to shout.
• Evening. A dance floor that fills, a band or DJ that sounds full without being painful, and a room that looks completely different from the afternoon.

When these are planned together, one crew and one set of equipment cover all four. Booked separately, it is three suppliers and three sets of cables to coordinate.

Ceremony sound

The ceremony is short, emotional and impossible to repeat. The risk is simple: guests beyond the fourth row cannot hear the vows.

What works is a small, discreet system. A pair of compact speakers on stands or hidden in the room, a lapel or headset microphone for the officiant, a handheld or lectern microphone for readings, and a playback source for the music. The couple rarely need microphones of their own if the officiant's microphone is placed well and the system is set up by someone who has done it before.

Outdoor ceremonies add wind and distance. Wind noise on a lapel microphone is the most common complaint, and it is fixed with the right windshield and placement rather than more volume. A battery-powered system avoids running cables across a lawn.

One UK detail: professional wireless microphones on the shared Channel 38 band need an Ofcom licence. Ask your supplier whether they hold one. The licence-free band has room for only a handful of channels, which is fine for one officiant and one reader but not for a full day of speeches, a band and a DJ in the same room.

Speeches: the part everyone remembers

Speeches fail for predictable reasons. A microphone left on a table nobody can reach. A speaker who holds it at their waist. A system too small for a long room. Nobody adjusting the level when a quiet father of the bride follows a loud best man.

What helps:

• A wireless handheld microphone for the speakers, plus a spare already switched on.
• A PA sized to the room, not to the guest count alone. A long, narrow room or a marquee needs a second pair of speakers part-way down so the back tables hear clearly without the front tables being blasted.
• Someone on the desk. A technician who watches the level and cues the microphones turns a nervous speaker into an audible one. For most weddings this is the single most valuable thing to pay for.
• A feed for the videographer, so the film has clean audio rather than the room's echo.

The evening: what the band or DJ brings, and what they do not

Most DJs bring their own sound and some lighting. Most bands bring their own instruments and stage sound, and some bring a PA. What they bring is sized for a dance floor in a normal function room, and it is theirs to look after.

What they usually do not bring:

• Sound for the ceremony and the speeches earlier in the day.
• A system big enough for a large or awkward room, a marquee, or a listed hall with a high ceiling.
• Room lighting: uplighting, feature lighting, festoon outside, anything that changes the look of the space rather than the dance floor.
• Power distribution, cable protection and the paperwork the venue asks for.

Ask each supplier for a one-line list of what is included. It takes five minutes and stops the gap being discovered on the day.

As a rule of thumb, a dance floor for 100 to 150 guests is well served by two full-range speakers and one or two subwoofers. Beyond about 200 guests, or in a long room, it is better to add a second, delayed pair of speakers than to push the first pair harder.

Venue sound limiters: ask before you book the band

Many UK venues, especially in residential areas, have a sound limiter fitted as a condition of their licence. It measures the level in the room and cuts the power to the stage sockets when the level goes over a set threshold for too long. Thresholds vary widely from venue to venue, and some are set low enough to be restrictive for a live band with a drummer.

Things to establish with the venue:

• Is there a limiter, what is it set to, and where is the sensor?
• Does it cut power or only show a warning light?
• Are there curfew times for amplified music inside and outside?

A limiter is workable when everyone knows it exists. Subwoofers placed sensibly, a drummer on an electronic kit or with a screen, and a technician riding the level keep the evening going.

Lighting: numbers and timings

How many uplighters

Uplighting is the quickest way to transform a room. Battery uplighters sit against the walls and columns and wash colour up the surface. For a typical function room holding 100 to 150 guests, 12 to 24 uplighters cover the perimeter, spaced roughly every two to three metres with one at each pillar or alcove. Fewer looks patchy; more than the room needs just adds to the set-up time.

The useful trick is the change through the day: soft warm white for the wedding breakfast, then the couple's colours for the evening. Battery units make that a remote-control change rather than a rewiring job.

Dance-floor lighting

A pair of moving lights or wash lights on stands, aimed at the dance floor, does more than a dozen small effects. Haze makes the beams visible and photographs well, but it can set off smoke detectors, so it needs the venue's permission and often a detector isolation arranged in advance.

Outside and feature lighting

Festoon along a terrace or over a courtyard makes the outside part of the party after dark and is one of the few lighting jobs that needs to be tested at night, not in daylight. Gobo projection of the couple's initials on a wall or floor, and uplighting of trees or a building front, are small additions that photograph well.

Candles

Many venues restrict naked flames. Ask early. Good LED candles are now hard to tell from real ones and remove the problem.

Marquee weddings

A marquee in a garden has no sockets and no rigging points. Sound has to be sized for a tent that leaks bass through canvas, power comes from a generator supplied by the marquee company or a hire firm, and the power for catering, heating and the band has to be planned as one budget. There is a separate guide to marquee sound, lighting and power, and the same rules apply to a marquee wedding.

Timings and access

Everything technical wants to be finished before the first guest arrives, which means the crew needs the room before the florist and the venue dressers have finished. Agree these in the running order:

• Access time for the ceremony room and the reception room, and whether they are the same room turned around.
• When the ceremony system comes out, if the room is being reset for dinner.
• When the evening lighting goes on. Usually as the room turns from dinner to dancing, not before.
• Curfew and de-rig. Some venues want everything out the same night; others allow collection the next morning.

Questions to ask the venue

1. Is there a sound limiter, what is it set to, and does it cut power?
2. What is the music curfew inside and outside?
3. Where is the power, and how much? A 13-amp socket gives about three kilowatts; a band and a full lighting rig can need more than one circuit.
4. Can lighting be hung, or does everything stand on the floor?
5. Is haze allowed, and can the detectors be isolated?
6. Are naked flames allowed?
7. What time can the crew get in, and when must they be out?
8. Do you have a preferred technical supplier, and what do you need from an outside one?

Frequently asked questions

Do we need a sound system if the venue already has one?

Sometimes not. Ask what the house system is designed for. Many are fine for background music and a single microphone, and not designed for a band or a full dance floor. If in doubt, a site visit settles it in twenty minutes.

Can the same company do the lighting and the sound?

Yes, and it is usually simpler. One crew, one power plan, one person to call, and the lighting changes happen when the music does rather than when a second supplier gets round to it.

How far ahead should we book?

Peak Saturdays go early. Three to six months is comfortable. Shorter notice is often possible, so ask.