I had the chance to interview the Singer and Song Writer of Wedding Harmony
and her name is Lorraine. In fact, Wedding Harmony is not unfamiliar to me as I had the chance to meet them and see them perform during my cousin’s wedding.

Here is the email interview:

1) Can you give me an introduction of yourself, when and how did you start out and what is your wedding site about?

We have always been doing music, in fact, that was how we met. I was singing and Shaowen was the keyboardist at The Ark lounge about 10 years ago. We got married in end 2005 and wanted to give CDs as wedding favors to our guests, it will be a compilation of songs we wrote and produced (I sing and write the songs, Shaowen does music arrangement. He was doing a lot of music arrangement and performance for artiste such as Kit Chan, Andy Lau etc).

But it never happened because we were too busy preparing for the wedding and there was no Wedding Harmony then haha…so we decided to set-up this company after we got married to help couples who really love music fulfill their dream of having a musical wedding, and yes,that includes giving CDs of their original love song as wedding favors.

We create and produce original love songs for our couples based on their love story. We also bring our couples to studio for recording sessions. To showcase the song to their guests during the wedding we do a photomontage MTV of the original song with lyrics. Recently we also have many requests to write a special tribute song to the couple’s parents.

We also do “live” music entertainment during the wedding, from a simple 3 piece acoustic set-up to 7 piece full concert team with soundcrew and engineer.So as the guests enjoy their dinner they are also at the same time watching a music concert. It’s adds a “wow” factor to the wedding.

2) I understand you have been in the wedding music business for quite some time and is now one of the top market leaders bringing creative music for weddings. What do you think is the key factor to your success?

Live music

1. Music quality? We are very very very particular about that. We never perform without a proper sound system set-up. You can have the best musicians on stage but if there isn’t a good sound system support in place, you will still sound horrible to the audience.

2. Our Musicians/team. They are Singapore’s finest. We handpicked everyone of them, and we never sub our gigs out to just anybody just so we can clinch a deal.

Original Song

1. We produce our couple’s original songs as if we are going to cut a commercial album.ie We do almost everything that a music production company will do if they were to produce an album, within our limits and budget given to us. For example, full professional music arrangements done by shaowen, we record in a fully equiped music studio with a sound engineer and vocal producers, we do editing, pitching, mastering and mixing (post production works) so the end product sounds very professional.

2. Preparation work before writing the song. We meet up personally with our couples, chat about what they would like for the song, music styles and arrangement. I will also guide them to write the storyboard, ask them questions, significant events or words they would like to have in the song before each project. Maybe that is why (keeping my fingers crossed) our demos (music draft, raw recording) have never been rejected by any of our couples haha.

3) What is it about your wedding music business that you are most proud of?

Professionalism? We are very serious music people as you can guess by now….oh and I’ve got many nice comments about us having a nice website, thanks to my designer =)

4) What is the greatest challenge that you have faced while growing your wedding music business?

People. It’s a people’s job really, especially in the wedding industry. It’s the couple’s once in a lifetime event and you don’t want to screw that up. Take away the glamourous part of performance,the joy and love of creating music, most of the other time, we are answering numerous emails, phone calls and meeting up with our couples as well as the hotel managers. And we have to try to be as prompt and as detailed as we can.

We also try our best to cater to each couple’s request because we understand that it is their wedding, thus you can’t just treat it like the other corporate projects anymore. So, you just cannot be doing music and music alone, you have to be communicating a lot with people. But the good thing that came out from this? We are now friends with many of our couples =)

5) Currently, what is the one wedding tip you want to give to soon-to-wed couples?

Start planning and sourcing around early. You will always get a better deal (as prices are always on the rise) and you have more time to choose and compare the different vendors.

6) What are some of the areas do you think wedding couples always overlook when planning their own weddings?

1. If it is about music entertainment, remember who your guests are, we always propose having a good mix of songs to cater to the young, old, english and chinese crowd. Unless yours is a very serious theme wedding, choose songs that your guests will enjoy and have a good mix, not just songs you and your partner like =)

2. A lot of couples like to ask their friends to help out as emcees or some even to put up a band to sing and perform during the wedding. Unless your friend is a professional, chances are they will not be professional on stage especially in front of so many people. Also being your friend they will not have the heart to turn you down, but in all honesty, I think they would rather enjoy the dinner then to be placed on stage.

7) Your final thought and advice for my wedding blog readers?

This is what i learnt from being a client/bride to now a business owner.

Don’t micro manage, share with your vendors your needs and expectations and be reasonable about it. If you are nice to your vendors they will be even nicer to you. There are things that are not written in black and white but you will be pleasantly surprised by what they will/ can do for you.

Also, it’s a really memorable time preparing for your wedding, so remember to relax a little and enjoy it while it last!

For more information on Wedding Harmony, click here.

That?s the end of the interview.

If you are contacting this wedding vendor, do say Romance Fire sent you.