We had the opportunity to run sound for an outdoor wedding last week. It was a lot of fun. The family was relaxed and they were great to work with.
My biggest complaint about outdoor weddings is that usually the audio is thin and difficult to hear because of poor speaker placement and not enough speakers. The last thing that you want at a wedding is to have the lack of good audio distract you from what is really important – like the bride and groom. My other complaint is that you can almost never hear the bride and groom recite their vows! I have rarely been to a wedding were the bride and groom were mic’ed.
The whole reason for a wedding is to hear the bride and groom make their vows one to another and it seems criminal to me not have that part of the ceremony mic’ed.
We set up 4 main speakers and 3 more in the reception area. We also set up a projector and a power point presentation that looped during the reception. We put a lapel mic on the groom, this gave us great audio for both the groom and the bride. We could have gotten away with just 2 speakers but we wanted to make sure that the audience was well covered and there was not a bad seat in the house, sound wise.
We recorded the ceremony so the bride and groom will be able to go back and listen at a later date. I don’t know about you but the day I got married is a bit of a blur and a CD with the audio on it would be cool to go back and listen to. We also recorded the open mic at the reception so the toasts can be heard again!
It sounded really excellent I was very pleased. The entire audience could hear everything clearly. The wedding planner even commented that it was the best sound at an outdoor wedding she has ever heard. So the lesson is: use as many speakers as you need to get good coverage.