Elian is one of our own vocalists. She married Adam in The Lodge, the barn behind The Rock & Fountain at Penhow, and she sang at her own wedding.
The Lodge at Penhow
The Rock & Fountain sits just off the A48 at Penhow, on the eastern edge of the Newport wedding band patch heading towards wedding bands Chepstow cover. It has been a pub for a very long time. The Lodge is the barn behind it, and The Lodge is the wedding room: stone, timber, double height, with a dancefloor that has space around it.
For a band it is an easy room to like, and the height helps - there is somewhere for a voice to go. Setup detail, load-in and lineup sizes are all on our Rock & Fountain wedding band page.
Playing for One of Our Own
There is a particular feeling to setting up for a gig where one of your singers is the bride. Load-in was the usual load-in. Soundcheck was the usual soundcheck. And then the person who would normally be stood at the front with a mic in her hand walked past in a wedding dress.
The band knows Elian’s voice the way you only know somebody you have played with a lot: which songs she owns, where she pushes, what she does at the end of a chorus. Playing a set where she is a guest at her own wedding is an odd way round.
It also meant nobody had to explain anything. She knows how long a set is, why the changeover takes what it takes, and what happens to a dancefloor when you put the wrong song in the wrong place.
When the Bride Takes the Mic
She sang, which surprised nobody who knows her. “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” was the one, and it is a sensible pick: big enough to be an occasion, familiar enough that the room joins in rather than stands and watches.
There is usually a moment where guests work out that the bride can sing. This one came in the first chorus.
If You Can Sing at Your Own Wedding
A fair few couples ask us about this, usually a bit sheepishly. The answer is yes.
Tell the band well in advance, not on the night. We need the right key, not the recording’s key, and we would rather learn it properly than transpose on the fly. Pick one song, or two at the most, and put it late enough that the room is warm but early enough that everybody is still in it. And if you have never sung in front of people, a wedding is a big room to start in - the crowd is everybody you know rather than strangers.
Barn Weddings East of Newport
We are based in Newport, so Penhow is fifteen minutes down the road and this stretch of the A48 is home turf. The barn circuit out here runs from the edge of Newport through the Levels villages and on into the Monmouthshire wedding venues we cover, with proper venues and short drives for guests.
Congratulations to Elian and Adam. It is not often we get to play for one of our own, and we would happily do it again.
The Brotherhood are a South Wales-based wedding band, playing barns, marquees and country houses across the Newport wedding band patch, Monmouthshire and the wider region. Get in touch to check our availability for your date.
