Wedding Bands in Bucks County PA

Hi, my name is Ryan. Most people that find themselves here on my site are couples that are lovers of music and are looking for music to play a key role in their wedding. I always thought that music does a good job of capturing the emotional undercurrent of the day, aka vibe. This vibe is a reflection of the bride and the groom’s love for each other. It also reflects the vibes of their friends and family that are there to celebrate with them and each other. Here you have the opportunity to reach out to one of the great wedding bands in Bucks County PA. I perform at wedding all throughout the greater Philadelphia area such as Willow Grove, Horsham, Southampton, Doylestown, and Richboro. Also if you’re looking for a wedding DJ, you’re in luck as I can also provide the DJ services for your wedding. Get in touch here, and let’s find a time to talk about your wedding music!

Throughout the wedding day the various expressions of vibe are transmitted into vibrations through the airwaves bringing everybody together through a shared experience. You know, many of your guests are having little reunions of their own, having great conversations, while enjoying the food and drink. These all would be separate experiences if it wasn’t for the music. While all of these wonderful people are having their isolated experiences – your wedding band is putting out the music that is simultaneously being experienced by everyone bringing them all together in this shared musical experience. And these vibes are the most important thing. Reminding everyone why they are here, to celebrate your love, the love of friends and of family both present and beyond.

As you can tell, it’s not just wedding musicians playing music or DJs mixing songs but deep preparation in the weeks leading up to the wedding. The wedding day is no exception. So no matter where your wedding is in Bucks County or Montgomery County, I show up about 2 hours before the prelude music starts. This is because in the spirit of providing the best wedding music experience I need to make sure that the DJ setup with all its speakers, mixing turntable, computer, lights, etc. is set up as well as the ceremony & cocktail hour live music before anything starts so that I’m simply walking from one set up to another to limit any transition time between the ceremony & cocktail hour or the cocktail hour and dinner/reception. 

How do we determine the orchestration for your wedding? Orchestration is something that makes a difference when it comes to the Live Music portion of your wedding. We have to determine whether a Quartet, Trio, Duo or Solo performance is best for your particular wedding. This is going to have an effect on the price & refinement of the musical experience. 

Wedding Band Serving Willow Grove, Horsham, Doylestown, and More

My wedding band is based in Willow Grove and I travel to wedding venues all throughout Bucks County and Montgomery County. I perform at wedding in places like Horsham, Doylestown, Southampton, and Richboro, and I’ve also done weddings in Newtown and Yardley. I also travel out to places like King of Prussia, Ardmore, and the rest of the Main Line. Pretty much if your wedding is taking place within an hour and a half drive from me, you’re within my range.

If I’m performing Solo, I’m playing acoustic or electric guitar depending on the song. That guitar is going into a looper station. As I’m going through the song while singing and manipulating recording studio quality dynamic percussion I may get to a part of the song where an instrumental would be nice. Secretly, I was recording the verse chords from earlier and when I get to playing the instrumental I have the chordal structure in the loop to provide me with a sonic landscape for my instrumentals to build upon. All this you probably would have already seen in the Live Music videos I have throughout this site or elsewhere.

If I bring the wedding band together and play with the Duo, Trio or Quartet, then I’m delegating some of what I do to the other live musicians. Like the Keys, Bass, Drums, violin, or even backup vocals. In doing so we’re adding a layer of refinement to the musical experience. But that’s not the best thing about playing with other people. Live Wedding Music is an interesting thing. Like I was saying earlier, weddings are many little reunions between friends and family and are more about that than a traditional musical concert. So, when I’m playing music – I’m giving my energy to you and your guests but am not always receiving feedback when it’s just me. I’m happy to give but it is more of a one way energy transfer. Don’t worry, I have an endless supply 😉 I’m just saying this so that you understand that when I play with other people – I’m putting my energy out there and it’s being received by the people I’m playing with and being reciprocated by them and received by me in a multiple of what I gave and gave again and so on and so forth. This upward spiral of energy can best be described as magic. That’s right, when you’re going with a Duo, Trio or even Quartet you’re literally getting magic!

Ryan Cook Music is easy to book. Once I understand what you are looking for – I create a custom Proposal which you can use to book me. Simply follow the steps which are simple. The Proposal contains three things: Fist, is the summary of what I’m doing for you like, Live Music + DJ. Second, is the payment plan. And third is the contract which again summarizes what I’m doing at your wedding. And then when we both sign, then it’s official! 

So, how does the wedding band establish the vibe? How is this bespoke wedding music experience made & how can it live up to this utopian scene I’ve so eloquently brushed onto these pages? Two words: Wedding Planner. Like all good things, it takes proper preparation and effort to make this experience uniquely yours. When you book me, I will send out this Wedding Planner. This is where we learn WHO YOU ARE and how to express that through music at your wedding.

This wedding planner contains all the tools necessary to pin down that vibe we’ve been talking about. It is a shared google sheet with multiple tabs. The first tab is my live music song list which contains around six hundred songs (and growing). You go through those and check off the ones you love or you think your guests would love the most and use them to populate the next two tabs which are the Ceremony & Cocktail Hour tabs. These are often the parts of the wedding where I perform Live Music. So, in the Ceremony & Cocktail hour Live Music tabs you designate which song is going to be your processional or which songs are going to make up your ceremony prelude music or cocktail hour music. Then I usually transition to DJ for the Dinner and Reception proper. For this part of the day I have the Introductions Tab. This tab contains all the key moments from the dinner and onward. This is where you let me know if anyone is going to be introduced, who their names are and in what order, what the first dance song will be, who is speaking or making a toast or blessing, etc. Don’t worry, this is not a blank page (the enemy of creativity).

I want you to get creative so throughout the wedding planner there are prompts in the form of questions. This is YOUR wedding after all! So all prompts take the forms of questions because I want you at every point of the wedding music design process to feel the freedom to be yourself. That means, you don’t have to do any wedding convention you don’t want to do. Or you can make up your own unconventional things that you would like to include. For instance, I ask you: Would you like me to introduce your wedding party? If so, who and in what order and to what song? That’s right, I am also an MC. I tastefully announce these things and let everyone know what is going on throughout the wedding. After the Introductions Tab, I have the dinner tab which is a place where you can let me know a little about the background music vibe you’re going for throughout dinner. Then, we get to the reception tab. This is where the music goes that you may like to dance to. This is the music that is meant to reflect the celebratory nature of this wedding and is also the time which you get to party with one of your choice wedding DJs in Bucks County PA. In the Reception tab, You’ll put down all the songs that you want to dance to. Sometimes a little spark of creativity is necessary so the next tab is the suggested DJ song list tab where you can go through songs that often work well at weddings to spark your creativity about songs you’d like to have played at your wedding reception or in contrast which songs you don’t want played at your wedding, haha. You’ll have to make sure to put that in the following tab, the Do Not Play List. TMI? Probably but the essential message is, I GOT YOU! The wedding planner will guide you through the process of planning your wedding music and is as easy as answering a questionnaire. 

One month before your wedding, I get on the phone with you and we go over the wedding planner from start to finish to make sure that everything you did there is something I understand and know how to implement. After that conversation, I’ll know exactly what I’m doing at your wedding and it’s all there for me to reference when I am preparing on my end in the weeks leading up to your wedding. After all, I am the one primarily responsible for making the music happen. The Live Music as well as DJ performance are on me at this point. I make sure that the music prep is something we get squared away a month before your wedding so I’m not asking you any questions when you’re in the final (sometimes busy) weeks before your wedding. All of this is for a good cause. Everyone that goes to your wedding goes away with an experience that differentiates and solidifies their friendship and love for you and the people that went to your wedding. 

I love being one of the rare wedding bands in Bucks County PA that is also a wedding DJ. It’s a beautiful place, right?!? A few places I’ve played in the in and around Bucks County, Montgomery County, and up in New Hope are Holly Hedge, Cairnwood, the Black Bass Hotel, The Terrain Gardens at DelVal, Terrain at Styer’s, Terrain Gardens, Terrain Devon, Parque Ridley Creek, Duportail House-Chesterbrook, Tyler Gardens, Stella of New Hope Aldie Mansion, Historic Stonebrook, Pen Ryn Estate, Appleford, The Manor House at Prophecy Creek, Knowlton Mansion, Merion Tribute House, Brandywine Manor House Inn, The Washington at Historic Yellow Springs, to name a few. But essentially, I connect with couples and the places the weddings are located are wide-ranging and various. Not the least of which are the weddings at the family home or homestead – those are fun too!

With much love from your Wedding Musician, Band Leader and DJ,

Ryan