Hope & Wes at Rain Bar | Manchester Wedding Singer

Hope and Wes booked me for a completely bespoke wedding music package at Rain Bar in Manchester City Centre, covering their ceremony before coming back later in the day for two 45 minute live sets to get the evening party well and truly started before the DJ took over. From the very beginning, I knew this wedding was going to be a little bit different.

Hope and Wes are two of the nicest, most down to earth people you could meet, and a big traditional wedding in a grand venue just wasn’t them. They love going out together, seeing live music, eating good pub grub and having a drink, so when it came to choosing somewhere to celebrate their wedding, an informal Manchester city centre wedding venuemade perfect sense.

I think sometimes there can be so much pressure for weddings to look a certain way, with the biggest flower arrangements, perfectly dressed chairs, enormous bouquets and every tiny detail styled within an inch of its life. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of that, but Hope and Wes’ wedding was such a lovely reminder that none of those things are what actually make a wedding special.

It is about celebrating your relationship, surrounded by the people you genuinely love, in a way that feels like you.

Their wedding did exactly that, and it was honestly such a beautiful day to be part of.

We had also got to know each other pretty well during the planning process. They had even made the trip over to Liverpool one weekend to come and watch me sing at one of my regular hotel residency gigs.

Having already met them both in person meant that arriving at their wedding felt much less like turning up to work and much more like catching up with people I already knew.

The Morning of Their Manchester Wedding:

Their ceremony was due to begin at 2pm, which naturally meant I arrived in Manchester City Centre at around 10.30am.

Excessive? Potentially.

Anyone who regularly works weddings in Manchester will probably understand my logic. The venue had no parking, loading was from double yellow lines and all of my equipment needed to make its way up several flights of stairs. I would always much rather arrive ridiculously early and have time on my side than spend the morning worrying about traffic, parking or getting equipment into a venue.

Rain Bar was spread across three floors, with the top floor reserved entirely for the wedding ceremony, the middle floor becoming the main space for the rest of their celebrations and the ground floor remaining open to the public.

During the planning process, Hope and Wes had been unsure about how best to manage their guest arrival because of the layout of the venue, so we talked through a few different options together and eventually came up with a plan that worked really nicely.

Guests arrived onto the middle floor where they could grab a welcome drink, mingle and spend some time with Wes before being invited upstairs into the ceremony room. Once everyone began making their way up, I could start the live wedding ceremony music and create that change in atmosphere between arriving at the venue and actually entering their ceremony.

It worked perfectly and still gave the ceremony space that little bit of magic when guests walked into the room.

A Ceremony I Will Never Forget

Then came the ceremony itself, and I can confidently say that this was unlike any wedding ceremony I have ever performed at.

Some ceremonies are incredibly emotional, some are very traditional and others are a little more relaxed and might have the occasional laugh, but this one had the entire room, including me, absolutely belly laughing.

At one point I was genuinely holding onto the wall because I had the giggles so badly. I’m still not entirely sure the poor registrar knew what was happening, and if I’m honest, I’m not sure any of us did.

It was chaotic in the best possible way, which is exactly what made it so perfect for them.

When Hope and Wes were finally announced as married, they celebrated with a high five, which immediately set everyone off laughing all over again as I began singing their register signing songs.

It was one of those ceremonies that you simply couldn’t recreate if you tried. Completely natural, completely personal and completely them.

From Ceremony to Celebration

Once the ceremony was finished, I packed everything down upstairs and started moving my equipment onto the middle floor ready for later in the day.

Somewhere in between carrying speakers and sorting cables, I bumped into Hope and ended up heading downstairs with her for a glass of Prosecco and a catch up.

When I say I could quite happily have pulled up a chair and joined the wedding for the rest of the afternoon, I genuinely mean it. Their family and friends were so welcoming that I immediately felt included in the celebrations rather than simply being one of their wedding suppliers.

A few hours later, after what can only be described as an excellent plate of fish and chips, because of course Hope and Wes had incorporated their beloved pub grub into the wedding, it was time for the evening celebrations to begin.

I changed into my evening outfit, ran one final soundcheck and got everything ready while the room was turned around.

Party shoes officially on.

Live Music to Start the Evening Party

By around 6pm, I got started with the first evening set and within minutes, the dance floor was full.

We had barely got through the beginning of the first set before a dance circle had appeared in the middle of the room, and this was before some of their evening guests had even arrived.

From there, we quite literally danced the night away.

The whole purpose of my evening wedding singer sets is to bridge that gap between the daytime celebrations and the DJ taking over later in the night, getting guests out of their seats and creating the kind of atmosphere where nobody wants the music to stop.

Hope and Wes made that part incredibly easy.

The room was full of people singing, dancing and completely throwing themselves into it, which was the perfect ending to one of the most fun and wholesome weddings I have had the pleasure of singing at.

For couples planning a Manchester city centre wedding, I think Hope and Wes’ day is such a brilliant example of why your wedding does not need to follow a traditional formula.

Choose the venue you actually love, eat the food you genuinely enjoy, fill the day with music that feels like you and celebrate with your favourite people in whatever way makes you happiest.

That is exactly what these two did.

Hope and Wes, thank you both for trusting me with such a huge part of your wedding day, for making me feel so welcome and for giving me one of the funniest ceremonies I have ever attempted to sing through.

We are already trying to work out which family celebration you can find an excuse to book me for next, and honestly, I’m completely on board.