When Rachael Armstrong got engaged to her now-husband Chris in 2021, one of the first wedding decisions she made was about the music that would accompany her entrance.
“I’d pictured it in my head before we were even engaged – I knew it would be romantic but also a bit fun and quirky,” she said. And so when the day came for her to make that walk down the aisle, she did so to a violin arrangement of Canadian pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen’s 2015 hit I Really Like You.
The Armstrongs are among an increasing number of couples choosing to soundtrack parts of their weddings with contemporary songs performed in a classical style – a trend thought to be related in part to the popularity of Netflix’s Bridgerton series. The Regency-era drama first aired in December 2020 and over the series features orchestral arrangements of pop songs such as Robyn’s Dancing On My Own, Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball and Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift.
A 2023 spin-off series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, was even released alongside a classical reimagining of Alicia Keys’s 2003 hit If I Ain’t Got You, which the singer re-recorded with an orchestra made up of women of colour.
“I’ve been doing weddings since 2018 and things escalated very fast after Bridgerton,” said Jay Émme, a weddings and events cellist who was also part of the orchestra accompanying Keys. “I’ve always had a few pop songs in my repertoire but it used to be that couples had heard a piece by the likes of Mozart or Bach and requested that. Then Bridgerton came out and it exploded.”
Some couples ask for music straight from the show, including the Keys song, said Émme, while others look for something more bespoke; one recent couple requested a mash-up of the traditional bridal march and Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1978 hit September. Another asked if she could rework a drum and bass track. And, she said, “there is always so much Taylor Swift”.
Craig Parker, guitarist with the Scottish wedding band Franco, said Swift is also among the most requested artists for acoustic ceremony and reception sets, where he plays alongside a violinist.
He has been offering the service for around eight years but demand has grown in the last four, he said, to an average of two bookings a weekend, every weekend.
“When you have a violin it’s a little bit traditional, and it sounds nice and classy in typical ceremony room settings – but most people still want to hear a song they know,” he said. “It’s nicer to have someone playing live than putting something on a speaker, but it’s still a bit more laid back than having a singer do it.”
“It gives it an air of sophistication,” Émme agreed. “There’s something about string instruments and classical music at a wedding – a lot of people don’t get to hear live instruments very often but they still want to hear their old favourites. It’s about breathing a new lease of life into their favourite old tunes.”
Both Émme and Parker say they are most often booked to soundtrack the big moments – ceremonies, registry signings, and entrances and exits – while traditional pop music still has its place later on in the evening.
“We still wanted to sing and dance along to our favourite songs when it came to the party,” said Armstrong. “But we wanted something special for the ceremony that would feel emotional and like ‘us’. “A lot of guests said it took a while for them to realise what the song was because they assumed it was just classical – but when the penny dropped it was really memorable.”
For Émme, the process of adapting a pop song is as rewarding as her traditional classical training. “In a way [couples who want something unique and bespoke] are my ideal couples because I sort of raged against the classical system,” she said. “I love orchestral work and the buzz of it – the bigger the better – but to have some freedom to play the stuff you know and love, and that you hear on the radio day in and day out, creates so much diversity and so much fun.
“If there’s something you love and it’s not classical, there’s almost always some way to play it on a classical instrument. Almost nothing is off limits.”
