Venue Review: House For An Art Lover, Glasgow

• Category: business, Ceilidhs, Events, Food and Drink, Glasgow, Music, performing, Scotland, venues, weddings
• 3 Comments

A popular wedding venue where the Jiggers are regularly invited to play is Glasgow's House For An Art Lover in Bellahouston park. (It's just round the corner from where the Jiggers are based, which is nice!). This is the venue of choice for lovers of Charles Rennie Mackintosh art and architecture.

The venue has an upstairs section for the reception ceremony and meal, with the downstairs "Art Lover's Cafe" which is a kind of mini-gallery that transforms into the gathering place for the evening ceilidh.

We often provide clients with music for the full day there, and were performing there again at the weekend. A popular choice is our bigdaymusic Wedding Silver Music Package, which includes a piper for welcoming guests (handy, if you're lost in the park and can't find the venue) and our jazz pianist usually tickles the ivories on the venue's baby grand piano during the meal. We also supply our string quartet for e.g. the drinks reception or the ceremony which can be held in the venue too.

Clients often ask what size of band is suitable for the House for an Art Lover…We usually suggest 3 piece or 4 at a push. 5 would be tight, especially if it was a full function band with backline. You can see the relatively small stage setup of the 3 piece Jiggers band, including DJ & lights, in the picture below. Including lights with the entertainment is a must for the art lovers cafe, whose white walls really benefit from some nice party lighting, i think.

If you've had an event at the House for an Art Lover, please do post a comment to tell us about your experience there.

Me, Katie & Dougie, the 3 piece Jiggers ceilidh band outside the House For An Art Lover.

Tips for Brides: Scottish Weddings Without the Worry

• Category: business, Ceilidhs, Events, Food and Drink, Music, Scotland, Weather, weddings
• 4 Comments

I recently asked Brides-to-be over on the Scottish Wedding Directory wedding forum about what they worried most about when planning their weddings. I'd like to repeat the question here.

I've dealt with brides and grooms-to-be for the last 12 years of running the ceilidh band, but I have to say I was pretty shocked and amazed by some of the answers. Shocked that there could be just so many things to worry about, and amazed that women can enjoy or look forward to their wedding day at all!

Worries include:

Wedding Dress: fit or split?

Weather: will it rain? Will it ruin the photos?

Guests: will they enjoy it? Will they be bored?

Family: will they show up? Will they show me up?

And then of course you've got the long list of wedding suppliers. Are they all reliable? Will they turn up on time? Will they deliver on their promises? Will they ruin everything?

As a Scottish wedding music supplier, I've worked with clients at both ends of the spectrum: those who are lovely, relaxed and enjoying every minute of it, and of course the occasional "bridezilla" (though to be fair, it's often just as much dad-zilla, groom-zilla, or sometimes even the vicar…man-of-God-zilla)

Next week I'll be posting on this subject, trying to understand *why* people get so frantic about their wedding day, hopefully outlining some of the practical solutions to the problem of wedding worry.

So to all the brides-to-be out there…what are you worried about?