Towards the latter half of our very busy August Niche The London String Quartet travelled out of London for wedding music in lovely leafy Hertfordshire and Essex…

On the August Bank Holiday Saturday Niche London String Trio journeyed together to the beautiful wedding of Lucy in Marks Hall, Coggeshall, Essex. The plan was to perform our wedding music favourites in the grand Main Hall where the guests arrived from the ceremony for the wedding reception. We serenaded them with classics such as Pachelbel’s Canon, The Vivaldi Four Seasons (very apt with the unpredictable English summer weather!), waltz’s, Bach and more. The wedding guests mingled and drank champagne until they were seated for the speeches, after which we changed our repertoire to our fun modern string arrangements such as Paradise and Coldplay, our brand new Abba and Queen Medleys, Jason Mraz, Bruno Mars and more!
Numerous guests came over to us whilst playing to ask for requests, which we were happy to provide as of course we have our extra special Niche Jukebox entertainment package perfect for keeping your guests entertained though-out your wedding!

As the String Trio left the guests and Newlyweds burst into applause, showing us that everyone had loved and enjoyed our work – an excellent gig for the London String Trio out in the countryside!

On the last Saturday of August Niche String Quartet travelled out of London to the wedding ceremony venue The Church of St. Peter and Paul in Little Gaddesdon, Hertfordshire. This beautiful church was absolutely stunning and historical – dating back to 1808, the perfect setting for us to play the romantic wedding music the bride and groom had chosen. We began playing Pre-Ceremony music – classical wedding favourites such as The Air on the G string by Bach, Faure’s Pavane  and Pachelbel’s Canon as the wedding guests entered.

Using our special arrangement service Claire asked that we prepare an arrangement of ‘Story Book of Love’ from the film ‘the Princess Bride’ for her entrance. The perfect romantic wedding song for her big moment that she’d dreamed of walking down the aisle to for years!

The signing of the register began with a local choir from St.Albans  – 30 members strong singing the lyrical masterpiece ‘For the Beauty of the Earth’.  The second half of the signing Niche Quartet played the Brandenburg 3 final movement to spice things up – perfect to portray the excitement of the big moment! We love the Brandenburg!

We then travelled across to the Hertfordshire wedding reception venue in Beechwood Park to play a mixture of our Classical Repertoire and Pop repertoire whilst guests enjoyed Drinks and Canapes in the beautiful grounds.

Niche Quartet had a beautiful day playing wedding music for the ceremony and reception in such lovely venues – thrilling such friendly and happy guests!

All the best to our happy August Newlyweds!

After a busy May the Bank Holiday weekend was all about sunshine and Wedding Music for Niche – The London String Quartet!

Our first stop was to the prestigious Ham Polo Club in the leafy heart of London and Richmond! We were there to play for Lorna and Mathew’s wedding reception, and as the weather was so lovely we were set up on the terrace overlooking the beautiful polo fields and sights. Lorna and Matthew had lots of favourite modern wedding songs they wanted to hear from our repertoire list, but also making use of Niche London Quartet’s special arrangement service they requested we write 5 extra special songs for them to hear as they started their wedding celebrations with their guests.

But first was their big arrival from the wedding ceremony. They wanted that special moment to be just perfect as they walked onto the terrace for the first time as Man and Wife so Mathew and Lorna picked the wedding music favourite “All You Need is Love” to accompany their big entrance. The instantly recognisable song and the unforgettable fanfare start encouraged the cheering and smiling guests no end!

As the wedding reception proceeded we made sure to work through the couple’s favourite song lists, interspersed with their special and romantic arrangement requests “One Day Like This”, “You Got the Love”, and “It Must be Love” being firm favourites with the guests and Niche Quartet.

After the wedding Mathew wrote to us:

“Lorna and I would just like to say a huge thank you to you and Niche for Saturday – even though we were pretty busy chatting to guests we both heard all our favourite and special songs being played – which added a really a special feel to the drinks reception.Everything about the day was perfect, so sorry we never had time to thank you in person.

Best wishes 

Mathew and Lorna”

It is so lovely to hear that the couples we have entertained loved our work! To read more from past hirers of Niche – The London String Quartet Click Here!

Niche London String Quartet had a very busy April travelling all over London and the Home Counties providing wedding music for beautiful and unique Spring weddings! We’ve been so busy we have only just managed to update the blog now it’s into May!

Our first wedding in April was in the heart of London City – The fabulous Conservatory at The Barbican to provide wedding music for the ceremony and reception of Helen and Andrew’s wedding. Helen had requested that we specially write and arrange 3 songs for her ceremony. As she made her big entrance into the luscious tropic gardens we played the hauntingly beautiful ‘No Surprises’ by Radiohead, which carried across the huge conservatory perfectly.

After the happy couple had become man and wife and were signing the register we played the romantic ‘There is a Light that Never Goes Out’ by the Smiths and then as they left the room to cheers we played the up-beat ‘Here Comes Your Man’ by the Pixes. A unique venue in the heart of London and equally unique ceremony music that was tailored specially by the Bride and Niche Quartet to make her big day unforgettable!

To see more photos visit https://www.facebook.com/nichelondonquartet

That evening we then travelled out of London to Tythe Barn in Oxfordshire to provide Becky and Rob with music for the wedding breakfast. The setting was beautiful in the middle of the countryside. The most important part of our performance that night was to play ‘Cry Me a River’ by Michael Buble as members from the party entered dressed in surprise chefs outfits to carve the meat themselves. What nobody expected is that when Niche Quartet were cued to play the sassy jazz song arranged by ourselves, they would enter dancing hilariously down the hall dressed in their surprise outfits! It certainly was a special and unforgettable moment for all of the guests and Niche London Quartet too!

Yesterday was our first December wedding and Niche – The London String Quartet travelled out across the frosty fields of Essex to provide wedding music for a beautiful countryside wedding.

The venue was the lovely Maidens Barn and Niche had arranged and rehearsed plenty of new wedding music requests for the happy couple to enjoy. The String Quartet was hired for 3hrs to entertain guests with our modern music selections during the reception in the marque and then to move to the hall where dinner would be served and provide a different set of classical and Christmas songs. The important request was that the five songs that we had written specially for the brides were to be played when they were around to enjoy them with their guests and children – this was made possible by our large and varied experience of wedding entertainment and of course the careful timing of our flexible setlists.

All of Niche were excited for this to be the first outing of some of our latest Christmas songs, ‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘Let it Snow’ and also to play old traditional favourites such as ‘Deck the Halls’. Our arrangement and performance of Kirsty’s favourite song Iris finished to applaud by the guests and people were tapping their toes and children dancing as we played the special romantic wedding song requests One Day Like This, If Your Not the One, Only Girl in the World, All My Life, and You Give Me Something. It was a beautiful wedding with a high level of fun and Niche were happy to add something extra special to the joyous atmosphere! Kirsty and Naomi were even kind enough to quickly come out to say that our performance was everything they’d dreamed of as we finished our set, which to Niche means it was a complete success.

Congratulations Kirsty and Naomi!

Niche – The London String Quartet had an extremely busy time in this weekend rushing around London performing in all different settings! The 2 bookings that stand out the most were played within 24hrs of each other!

On Friday Niche Quartet travelled to famous London venue The Underworld in Camden to accompany The Eljiah as session musicians in their specially arranged full album gig. This gig had been months in the planning and fans from all over Europe would be travelling to experience this one of style concert. Also some of the Niche Quartet fans that had experienced our playing in entirely different wedding based events were coming along to hear the performance!

It turned out to be an amazing gig with nearly 500 fans filling the venue and creating an energised and buzzing atmosphere right from the start. The Elijah’s debut album ‘I Loved I Hated I Destroyed I Created’ is awash with lush and emotive string sounds, and therefore since July Kimberley from Niche Quartet had been working with the composer and band member Sean Harrison to get the scoring and music perfect for this highly anticipated gig. It went exactly as planned and the both the band, Niche Quartet and the fans were completely absorbed into the music throughout the whole set – a complete success!

Feedback from the fans and the band has been excellent and Niche London Quartet were so glad we could be involved – A DVD is soon to be released of the performance: See The Trailer Here

Within 24hrs Niche – The London String Quartet were heading to the heart of the city to provide wedding reception music at Haberdashers’ Hall. The couple had already been married in a luxury wedding in Barbados and had returned to their hometown London to have their wedding reception. They used Niche Quartet’s complimentary arrangement service to have the wedding music they walked down the aisle played at the beginning and end of the reception.

After much work and rehearsing we arranged Debussy’s enchanting Clair de Lune (famously used in the last scene of Ocean’s 11) and it is now a firm favourite in our classical repertoire! For the remainder of the reception we entertained guests by creating a jovial atmosphere with classical favourites mixed in freely with our modern wedding songs. See what Paul had to say about Niche Quartet and our performance here!

A highly exciting and varied way to spend a weekend for Niche – The London String Quartet!

Niche – The London String Quartet received very exciting news this week! Our last blog post mentioned that we had been nominated to take part in the 2013 Wedding Industry Awards after our performance at the London Sassi Holford Couture Wedding Dress Launch.

We are now pleased to announce that we have been shortlisted for Best Live Music Wedding Entertainment  in London and the South East!! The placement is decided by the judges from all different parts of the wedding industry but most importantly influenced by the votes and comments collected from our previous wedding clients.

It is so lovely to see that so many of our past wedding clients have voted for us and left feedback to make us stand out from the crowd!