What is a roaming band?
A roaming band is a group of musicians who can walk (or roam) with their instruments as they perform, delivering music directly to your wedding guests no matter where they are. Unlike a stage band performing in front of a dancefloor, a roaming group is not confined to one location and not fixed to a certain time of day. This means that you could book a roaming band to gently serenade your guests during an afternoon champagne reception; to entertain with singalong classics through your wedding breakfast; or even to provide the perfect soundtrack to your post-wedding day lunch.
Acoustic instruments are key to the performance style. In The Travelling Hands, we perform with acoustic guitars, saxophone, double bass, percussion, and lots of vocal harmonies. Our performances can be totally acoustic or amplified, with either option lending itself more towards different wedding sizes and each couple’s goals for the delivery of the music too.
In terms of repertoire, roaming bands’ selections can vary enormously. In our team, we sing and perform a selection of the world’s greatest hits through a curated setlist designed for wedding guests of all ages. From The Beatles to The Backstreet Boys, no decade is off limits in our immersive musical adventure.
When on the wedding day do you advise having a roaming band?
Here are our top 3 moments to place roaming entertainment during your wedding celebrations:
1. The Wedding Breakfast/Dinner
The ultimate time on a wedding day to place roaming entertainment is during the wedding breakfast itself. With hundreds of wedding celebrations behind us over the last 12 years, in our experience this is where the magic happens time and time again and we couldn’t recommend it enough.
The goal here is simple – to create an incredible dining experience, to ignite your celebrations and to ensure that your guests are energised, united and excited to celebrate with you before their feet have even touched the dancefloor. The wedding breakfast is a truly magical time to place roaming performances for a number of reasons. Let’s take a look at the key points as to why they work so well here…
Guest mindset: Guests have been able to catch up over afternoon drinks and the wedding breakfast is the time when they can fully relax and enjoy the incredible menu that you’ve selected for them. As drinks flow, and laughter fills the room, there’s a wonderful atmosphere that is perfectly complemented through the addition of live music. Guests are ready to really celebrate for the first time on your wedding day at this point. If you’re looking to kickstart a party as soon as possible during your celebrations, then roaming entertainment may be just what you’re looking for.
Surprise: When our musicians enter a wedding breakfast, wearing sharp British suits, holding acoustic instruments, and performing an inclusive setlist, it’s an incredibly fun moment for wedding guests that also takes them by surprise. Guests know that they are in for a treat. This is unexpected immersive entertainment and it’s all thanks to you!
Speeches: Wedding breakfasts are of course the most popular time of day for wedding speeches. As guests are taken down memory lane by the different speakers and enjoy the stories of yesterday, music is the perfect accompaniment to break up the speeches. A soundtrack of pure joy and fun contrasts wonderfully against the heartfelt and humorous speeches from your nearest and dearest. After that final toast to the happy couple during dinner (typically instigated by the best man), there’s another magical moment to savour where music can once again elevate the experience. Your guests raise their glasses one last time with their thoughts entirely with YOU! This provides the perfect moment for roaming entertainment to encapsulate this celebratory atmosphere and to bring your wedding dinner to a close in style.
Interaction: Without the limits of a stage, musicians roaming through your wedding breakfast are able to get much closer to you and your guests than you may have expected. With The Travelling Hands in the room, our couples can expect saxophone solos whilst standing on chairs, guests to be taken by the hand, and a dining experience unlike any other. After all, you deserve to party all day on your wedding day, so why wait until the evening?
The After-Effects: After a wedding breakfast has finished, the benefits of a great roaming performance continue long into the night. Rather than a sleepy dessert service, your guests are left feeling energised, replenished and ready to take on the dancefloor with you long into your evening celebrations.
2. Afternoon drinks – the Champagne and canapé hours
This is the second most popular time to place roaming entertainment during a wedding celebration. At this point in your wedding day, just after the confetti has been thrown, it’s very normal for you to be whisked away by your wedding photographer for those perfect post-ceremony shots. Guests begin to catch up often over a champagne reception and the focus during these hours is primarily on conversation. Music here has to respect this moment perfectly by enabling guests to say hello or catch up with one another, whilst also helping them to relax and ease into your big day. A gentle acoustic soundtrack for your guests to enjoy can add a great touch and create a lovely ambience at this time. The Travelling Hands would opt for a relaxed playlist and a gentler performance for afternoon performances, before we reappear during the wedding breakfast to create the celebratory dining experience that we are best known for.
3. Multi-date Celebrations
For couples organising a multi-date wedding celebration, this provides even more scope for roaming entertainment. Here are the two most popular timings outside of the wedding day itself:
The Rehearsal Dinner: A party the day before the main event is becoming more and more popular. It’s also a great way to help calm any nerves for couples when their friends and family come together ahead of the big day. A roaming band works very well here as the evening entertainment choice. The band can roam through this first event, weaving through your guests with a soundtrack to help everyone unwind and simultaneously strengthen the bonds between your different guests as they catch up before the wedding has even begun.
Post Wedding Day Celebrations: If you’re hosting a post-wedding day luncheon as a finale to your celebrations, then this is another fabulous opportunity to place roaming entertainment. Guests may be taking things slowly on this day, naturally a little tired after the wedding party (and perhaps a few sore heads too). There’s a lovely relaxed atmosphere during this lunch as guests reminisce on the day just gone. Roaming performances here work incredibly well as those guests looking for a gentle lazy day can relax with some feel good ambient songs on the move, and those who are still in the celebratory spirit can sing along and party once more.
Best tracks to get the party started?
There are certain tracks that make a big impact time and time again. We always have these on standby ready to perform at the perfect moment. A selection of feel-good cross-generational numbers that can really get the party started include Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’, The Backstreet Boys’ ‘Everybody’ and The Beatles’ ‘Twist & Shout’. They all have big singalong moments, they’re well known by a wide age range and they bring a great energy that quickly spreads through a room. We’ve seen guests young and old singing their hearts out to these songs at events all over the world.
When should you book a roaming band?
If you’ve fallen in love with a particular band, then our advice would be to get in touch with them straight away to see if they are available for your wedding date. Peak dates can fill up quickly so as much notice as possible is always the safest bet.
However, if you happen to be further along in your wedding planning, don’t despair. It’s still worth getting in touch if you’ve found a band that is just right for you. An experienced roaming band will help guide you through the steps to get everything in place for an incredible celebration. With little to no changes to your wedding plans required, roaming entertainment is relatively simple to add into your wedding timeline and you may well be able to add a band into your celebrations even if your wedding date isn’t very far away.
What sets Travelling Hands apart from the rest?
The Travelling Hands have been crafting and enhancing our musical offerings since 2011. Our experience at hundreds of wedding celebrations worldwide, combined with a commitment to deliver our very best has enabled us to offer a range of benefits that all of our wedding couples can enjoy…
Reassurance: The Travelling Hands name brings verified and award-winning entertainment. We’re recommended by over 20 five-star hotels in London alone, we’re accredited entertainers at The National Gallery, we’ve ‘wowed guests’ say Tatler, we’re trusted by countless global brands at their special events; we’ve warmed up guests for Lionel Richie, partied with celebrities, entertained multiple Presidents, created a Caribbean music video with Rosewood Hotels and we’ve helped couples celebrate in venues ranging from Kensington Palace to the beaches of Bali.
The Performance: We understand that our role at weddings is to provide a musical soundtrack that can break the ice, unite guests of all ages through an inclusive song-list and ignite our couples celebrations before they have reached the dancefloor.
The Team: We entertain with some of the UK’s finest musicians in our team and this means that you can have the very best at your celebrations too.
Aesthetics: When our couples have carefully designed and curated their perfect wedding visuals, from the wedding dress and floristry to decor and lighting, we believe that the entertainment they choose should look just as good too. In The Travelling Hands, we’re sponsored by award-winning menswear brand Marc Darcy who keep us looking sharp.
And Finally… The Personal Touch: Once The Travelling Hands are confirmed for a couple’s wedding celebrations, we become a part of their wedding team, working to deliver the perfect musical accompaniment for their celebrations. We want our couples to feel comfortable and cared for. They can meet our founder Tom over a video call to tell us all about their wedding goals – so that we can understand the couple better and have these goals in mind from day one when we start planning some musical magic together.
If you’re looking to elevate your wedding day and create an experience for your guests, then roaming entertainment may be just what you’re looking for. Life’s big moments don’t get much bigger than your wedding day. Your favourite people in the world are all together just for you and we don’t get many opportunities like this. Let’s make it count. Let’s celebrate in style.
Discover more about The Travelling Hands and book your own video call with Tom via the links below:
www.instagram.com/thetravellinghands
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