Ishari de Silva Weddings Guest Blog

We recently had the pleasure of guest blogging for London wedding planner Ishari de Silva.  Ishari is an excellent luxury wedding planner based in London and her Wedding SOS guide is a series of articles designed to help discerning Brides and Grooms attain useful information regarding the various  areas of wedding design - it's both contemporary and yet still aware of the classic, timeless areas of wedding design.

It was a pleasure to write about how to use live music in weddings, based on our 8 year experience at Liquid Strings and we look forward to further collaborations with Ishari in the near future.

See the article here

Ishari de Silva - London Wedding Planner

Liquid Musicians - Bands, DJs and more for hire in London

When you're looking for entertainment for your wedding or event, wouldn't it be nice to keep it as simple and clear as possible?  And to keep fewer points of contact, rather than yet more?  At Liquid Musicians and Liquid Strings, we help you to have the entertainment without the stress of running around, trying to source a string quartets here, a band there, a DJ in another place.  All under one roof means packages, discounts, convenience, added trust - just to name a few benefits.

Contact us with any enquiries and check out our new site - www.liquidmusicians.com.

Bands, jazz groups, DJs and wedding acts for hire in London and the surrounding regions.

New website for all our non-string acts

It's not all about stringed instruments - we have bands, DJs, gospel choirs - and even a magician on our books.

So many, in fact, that we decided to create a very similar sister site just for all the 'non-string' acts.

It's here - www.liquidmusicians.com

Have a look at the bands, wedding packages and other acts we're offering for hire in London and the surrounding regions.  We've added some new acts, like T Jay a superb London wedding singer

And much more.  

If you're looking for some inspiration from an actual wedding we've provided 3 acts for, have a look at our Wedding Case Study.

There are lots of factors involved in choosing suppliers for your wedding.  Here are a few other wedding professionals that we've been impressed by -

Juliet McKee - a superb Wedding Photographer

Melanie Helen - a brilliant London Wedding Planner

Mark Angus - stylish and sophisticated Photo Booth 

Kate Hopewell-Smith - another great Wedding Photographer


Happy planning, nothing great was ever achieved without effort, but the rewards on the day and in your memories make it worth every moment of time and energy that goes into creating an amazing day!  Don't stress - easier said than done - but it should be a fun process, leading up to a very fun day :)

LIQUID MUSICIANS - Our New Website

We got a bit tired of people (fairly) assuming that Liquid Strings was just a string quartet or a large strings collective.  So finally the time came to divide the string acts from all the other great live event music acts and DJs we work with.

Liquid Musicians is now online and thanks to our wonderfully skilled and practical webdesign team - www.focusnewmedia.co.uk - you can easily navigate from Liquid Strings to Liquid Musicians according to which kind of act you're interested in hiring.

We're going to be adding new acts and are excited to be starting work with some new, non-musicals acts as well, such as a superb magician.

Right off to an event now, but do keep an eye on the site for exciting new acts coming soon!  Happy Pancake Day to all (nutella and banana coming up).

Funky Photographers

We had the pleasure of working alongside Hannah MacGregor whose website is http://www.funkyphotographers.co.uk/.

Hannah seemed very relaxed and in control, as she effortlessly glided around the room with her camera.  Indeed she was so discreet initially that we didn't even see her!  Like Liquid Strings, Hannah is a recommended supplier in the lovely Pembroke Lodge.  She knows the venue really well and knows how to make the most out of the setting to get perfect photos for your big day.

We've just been looking at her Wedding Gallery, and are hugely impressed with the use of colour and light, as well as the joy in the images - people caught looking unmistakeably happy on their big day - so much more enjoyable to look at than 100 staged photos.  Of course like all great wedding photographers (and arguably all great wedding suppliers), she can do formal and informal with equal skill.  Indeed, the work is funky!

Although we were playing in our string quartet and I was checking all was ok with my other acts that busy weekend, a quick chat with Hannah told me that she'd be hugely approachable and helpful when enquired to.  Hopefully she had as great a working day as we did!

Liquid Strings in Pembroke Lodge

London Strings Quartet

We're still taking last minute wedding bookings for string quartets, trios and duos.  A London String Quartet from Liquid Strings will provide a great atmosphere for your wedding or event - here are a few tips to help you choose music for your wedding -

- String Quartet sounds best and has the greatest variety of music - from Britney Spears to Coldplay, Mozart to Skyfall theme, wedding marches, light jazz, tangos - chances are if it's for string quartet, we can play it - or if not, we can have it professionally arranged at a reasonable extra cost.

- However, if your budget will not allow for a string quartet (and we appreciate these are challenging times for spending), then a String Trio sounds excellent and is almost as good, but a bit less costly!  Bar that, there's duo or solo also.  String Duo is elegant and works best in a smaller setting and where the music is very much in the background, as there is less variety available.

- Choose your own setlist or let us help you decide.  We can suggest the best pieces for the different parts of the day.  Playing Toxic and Jeeves and Wooster before a ceremony as guests are arriving makes no sense - playing them in the reception afterwards when the atmosphere is less formal is much better.  We have a range of choices - either classical traditional for the ceremony, or more modern (lots of newly weds walking out to Coldplay - Viva la Vida, for example).  Contact us for some help on this after you've booked us for your wedding.

- Book your music earlier - it's one less thing to think about later, and we can offer packages with everything from just a Solo Harpist for the whole day (for an understated and calm wedding!), to quartet, jazz pianist and big Party Band, all booked and guaranteed for you in advance so you can get on with the rest of the planning.

Call us today for some inspiration - all weddings are not the same, and as such we treat each enquiry as another opportunity to match music to what our clients really imagine will provide a perfect soundtrack for their day!

London String Quartet

Electric Violin at the British Museum

We had the pleasure of working with the superb Peppermint Diva Events  for their client's event in the British Museum on Monday.  Sarah provided tunes to accompany the beats of Lyndsay - the venue looked amazing and a great event was held.  Well done to Peppermint for their usual impeccable magic.

Sarah and Lindsay make a great pairing - always great to see a female DJ, and they both look and sound in perfect harmony with each other.

Electric violin and DJ for hire is also a perfect corporate act.  It works so well on so many levels - it can be relaxing and chilled and just as quickly go more uptempo as the evening progresses - why have 2 acts doing this when one can so effectively? 

VENUES WE LOVE

There are loads of great venues for getting married in - just a small peek in London will have revealed.  Great wedding entertainment works in lots of London wedding venues - and here are some of our favourites -

Pembroke Lodge - Apart from the beautiful scenery and breath-taking view from the Terrace of the Belvedere Suite, there's also -

- Beautiful interiors - (see photo from a recent wedding as we set up in the Russell Suite)
It's an elegant Georgian mansion, steeped in London history (Dickens, Thackeray and Tennyson were all entertained here by the then Prime Minister Lord George Russell; it was also used in WW2 as regimental headquarters, David Niven was there at the time).

- Helpful staff
 They're a well-honed team at Pembroke - having had so many weddings here, they take it all in their stride.  When we mentioned a 5 piece band to them, they said 'That's a lot for that room - but if your client wants it, we'll accommodate them).  That to my mind is good service.

- Stunning views and lovely scenery
Worth mentioning twice, we can't get enough of them even having been here so many times!



Other great venues we've worked in recently include our string trios, harpists and DJs in Chandos House - stunning venue, small but a jewel.

Summer wedding jazz band

A wedding jazz band can work really well, as long as you have planned it to be an integral part of the wedding entertainment.  It works particularly well in summer when the wedding is outdoors (or at least in a marquee).  A jazz band for weddings sounds great outdoors - guests will relax and it's informal, possibly even slightly decadent.  A Great Gatsby atmosphere can be obtained with the right wedding jazz band.

The good thing about jazz though is that it's not too informal - it can look and sound just as elegant, whether your theme is a formal champagne reception or a DIY vintage tea party.  The right jazz band for a wedding will be able to cover either with consummate ease.

Call us today to discuss hiring a wedding jazz band in London for your wedding.  We also cover the surrounding regions, and have even been known to travel a bit further.  Have a listen to some of the greats to get inspired - and then check out one of our greats, by clicking on the wedding jazz band link below -

Wedding Jazz Band London

Wedding Band for hire in London

If you're looking for a great wedding band in London to hire for your wedding or corporate event, look no further.  We have a small but highly select chosen group of bands, all of which will add big atmosphere and a superb soundtrack to your event.

A wedding band in London can be a solid 4 piece that can play a great range of crowd pleasers, from the 60s to the present day.  So you can have a bit of everything for the different generations and a friendly excellent party band can really play to each individual crowd and get people up and dancing and having a great time.

Another type of wedding band for hire in London could be a larger party band, and all bands have their own styles and ways of performing.  At Liquid Strings, we're getting as much video footage of different musicians for hire - so if there is not video of an act on its individual page, then there should hopefully be soon - keep checking the site, or call us and ask for more details of any particular act.

So, for a great wedding function band,look no further than Liquid Strings - we've played in over 100 venues in London and the surrounding regions.  We love what we do :)

String Quartet in Chelsea Town Hall

Liquid Strings provided a string quartet for a beautiful wedding yesterday in Chelsea Old Town Hall.  A string quartet in Chelsea Old Town Hall  works really well with the players able to play in the upper gallery.  For this wedding, we played Here comes the Bride, 'She' from Notting Hill and Coldplay - Viva La Vida for the exit of the Bride and Groom.  The wedding was filmed and will be in the public realm soon enough - for now, we're sworn to secrecy!

We did get a short break, in which we were kindly given some delicious canapes by the wonderful Cooks and Partners.  Thanks for that, kept the energy levels up for the more upbeat, pop sets during the reception.

Photos to come, but here's a nice quartet one from another recent event

Wedding Entertainment Packages

We're very excited about our new wedding package section coming to the site too.  From the most simple, but still effective - of a  string duo and DJ to more of a splash package with wedding string quartet, wedding jazz band or gospel choir and DJ with live musicians.

As well as the packages we'll put up on the site, we're more than happy for our clients to create their own bespoke packages.  We know how music works in weddings, have played in and been involved in organising the music for more than 1,000 weddings.  So we're more than happy to advise, but it's a great thing when a client makes their own combinations and directs their wedding film, as it were.

We can also offer corporate entertainment packages too, although these are not set as we've noticed that although certain acts work better than others in corporate events music, corporate events that we've provided live music and DJs for have been so varied, that we generally treat each one as being totally different, as they so often are.


Anyway, get in touch to discuss your event - we love challenging enquiries, and creative packages to bring an event up to its highest level of entertainment.

New Venues in September

Liquid Strings at New Venues


September has seen us providing string quartets and other groups for weddings in One Whitehall Place, The Orangery Holland Park and Home House, to name 3.
A string quartet in One Whitehall Place sounded superb with the amazing acoustics and backdrop - it's truly a stunning venue and sets off the live strings really fantastically.
If you require a complete wedding package of some of our acts and DJs, we can tailor it to your exact requirements and offer a discount for booking more than one act for the same day.

Call Liquid Strings today for a chat and a quotation.

If you're looking for great pop music played by string quartet for your wedding, look no further!  Martin's new version of Toxic by Britney has gone down a storm in weddings and corporate events.  We're enjoying playing Micheal Jackson, Britney, Beach Boys, Coldplay, Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder, Sigur Ros, Journey, Air and many more in all kinds of events.  You will not be bored!  Mix this with Jeeves and Wooster, Tangos and the odd Brandenburg Concerto, and you have a cocktail of music - glamorous, sophisticated and iconic.. Hire a string quartet in London for your event with Liquid Strings - we will not disappoint!!

Hire a jazz trio in the changeable British Summer to put your guests in a relaxed mood, whatever's happening with the weather.  Jazz trios in London are really popular for a whole host of events, and Liquid Strings regularly supplies jazz bands of various sizes (but often trio) for private parties, corporate events and weddings.

Here's a photo of the brilliant jazz saxophone player Dee with her trio - live jazz from Liquid Strings in the wedding of Johnathon and Klaudia in Merchant Taylor's Hall - another superb wedding venue in London that really benefits from live string trio or jazz band (in this case, we provided both - and a London  wedding DJ).
Live jazz creates a relaxing but sometimes lively atmosphere and enhances an event - Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davies, Cole Porter - all great tunes for summer and let's hope the weather lends a hand also....

String Quartet in The Mayfair Hotel

We've just had our second engagement in the stunning Mayfair Hotel - Rebecca created a surprise 60th Birthday party for her mum.  As well as playing Happy Birthday, we'd been told that she was a huge Cliff Richard fan, so jumped from everyone singing along to Happy Birthday onto Congratulations, which went down especially well with her in the surprise moment.

The current vogue is for pop covers on string quartet.  Quartets like the Vitamin Quartet in the States have meant that there are lots of string quartet versions of pop songs here online.  Many of these are unavailable to purchase as sheet music, but we have some brilliant arrangers - so nothing is beyond us.  Recent new versions of Toxic by Britney Spears and a Michael Jackson medley are going down a treat in weddings and corporate functions.  Our quartets love playing them as well - it's a break from classical music and they're as much to play as to listen to.

Hiring a wedding string quartet from us in London couldn't be easier - all the wedding string quartets for hire are simply booked and then leave the rest to us - or create your own playlist for the big day!

Wedding Guitarist

It's time for sorting out all the aspects of the wedding, following the successful proposal over Christmas! If you're looking for something great for the ceremony, reception and/or first dance - where better to look than at a fantastic wedding guitarist.
We're honoured to work with some of the finest entertainers and wedding musicians in the country, and Thom is clearly one of these.
Here he is photographed playing Roberta Flack, the First Time I Saw Your Face for Debbie and Steve's wedding in The Grove, Watford.

Debbie emailed me after the honeymoon to say
"Hi Brian,
Hope you are well, I just wanted to drop a note to say a big thank you to Thom for his performance at our wedding, he was amazing."

A guitarist like Thom is superb, as he can play a mix of background classical and light jazz, and then build up to a more uptempo set with vocals that is the perfect link to the DJ or band that you are having later. He's highly experienced, and can create a great atmosphere with his top quality playing and vocals.

Xmas Shopping Music

The lovely folk at four23 hired our gospel singers to pull those nervous xmas shoppers in for a bit of retail therapy, or just giving to loved ones (depending on your point of view)....as always, the singers scored a hit in the chilly December weather and brought some festive cheer as only great live music can!
Call us if you are looking to being this festive cheer to any occasion, with our fab gospel choir for hire - and thanks again to Rebecca, Pip, Elin and the others at four23 for their awesome work - judging by Xmas sales, it worked!

New Year

We had a great Xmas, with the lovely people at Google employing our electric violin and turntables duo for their new office opening at Level 4, in Belgrave House in London. See the picture for their cool surroundings, without the need for any extra backdrop.

Thanks to Stephen Rosenthal for hiring us - it was a pleasure to meet you and the very friendly and nice people from Google. We had fun, and Naomi commented that is was the 1st time ever that a client had helped her and Matt take down at the end of the night. She was very happy about this!

As well as that, we provided live gospel singers for Ron Dennis, and also outside Addidas, Covent Garden, played in a beautiful Christmas wedding at the Cavalry and Guards Club, a charity event in Brick Lane, and a Christmas party for Black Sun in Fulham Palace - to name a few of our events. The 20s theme and its fashion continues with Duncan and his guys doing a great prohibition set in their own suave way.

If you're looking for live musicians for hire in any event you're planning for 2012, please do call us - 07958 031797 - we're always delighted to look for the most unusual acts as well as those who just keep getting successfully booked because they're so damn good.

Happy New Year to all from Liquid Strings.

Wedding Fair Richmond Hill Hotel

We are really excited to be meeting new brides and grooms to be in Richmond tomorrow morning. I am going to be answering any questions about how to best use live music in your wedding, whilst Louise is going to be playing beautiful music on her harp.

Do come and say hello if you're local - it's going to be packed full of great exhibitors, and we're looking forward to a great day! There are loads and loads of musicians for hire for weddings in London and the surrounding region.