Planning Your Event
The pipes can add pomp and ceremony and energy and atmosphere to any occasion!
Use the menu on the left for suggestions that will aid your event planning.
The bagpipes are a traditional favorite at weddings. Over the years Wayne has performed and choreographed weddings in churches, private homes, restaurants and banquet halls, resorts, hotels, outdoors, in fields, and even on a mountaintop at sunrise!
Whether you have the pipes play before, during or after the ceremony (or all of the above) is a personal choice. Here are some suggestions.
Before the Ceremony
Inside: The pipes can perform the musical prelude prior to and during the seating of the final guests and the mothers.
Outside: Medleys of Scottish love songs and beautiful airs can welcome and entertain your guests upon their arrival and entry. For lengthy outdoor preludes, we suggest a minimum of two pipers. If the pipes are to perform inside either prior to or as part of the ceremony, you’ll probably wish to forego the outside playing.
During the Ceremony
The pipes can perform the processional and the recessional. Popular processional tunes include Hearken My Love, Rowan Tree, and Highland Cathedral or other selections of your choice. The more traditional "Here Comes the Bride" melody fits beautifully on the pipes for the Bride’s entrance.
If a tune is desired during the ceremony, Amazing Grace can be played at any point, especially at or following the lighting of the Unity Candle.
Two spirited tunes, Scotland the Brave and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, are very popular recessionals.
Following the Ceremony
If you’ve chosen not to have the pipes do the recessional, the pipes can play outside as guests exit. The pipes can also entertain during the receiving line.
At the Reception
The pipes can arrive early at the reception and perform outside as guests arrive. Or, the pipes can wander through the cocktail reception as the guests await the wedding party’s arrival.
The pipes can announce the arrival of the wedding party and the bride and groom can be ceremoniously piped to the head table or led on a serpentine path through the tables of guests!
The most requested pipe tune, Amazing Grace, can be performed at the church, at the funeral home, or at the graveside or mausoleum.
At the church or funeral home, the pipes frequently lead the casket in and out. The piper may lead the procession or may stand stationary at the front of the room and continue to play as the casket arrives or as mourners exit.
At the grave site, the traditional and meaningful Flowers of the Forest, or Going Home, or other tunes can be played as the pallbearers bring the casket to the grave site and can continue until the mourners are assembled. For effect, the piper frequently stations himself 30 to 60 yards away, on a hillside if available. The effect of the "distant" pipes is dramatic. The piper may also lead the funeral procession to the site.
Amazing Grace is traditionally played at the conclusion of the graveside ceremony.
At military, fire, and police ceremonies the pipes can perform Taps, Caissons Go Rolling Along, Marine Corps Hymn, etc. Sometimes the pipes play as the American flag is removed and folded for presentation to the family.
Many other tunes or hymns are available upon request.
The pipes can perform medleys outside the facility to welcome arriving guests and serve as a "marker" for persons unacquainted with the location. We can arrange for more than one piper, i.e., from two or three pipers, a side drummer, a bass drummer, all the way to a full band to give your event the flavor of a grand-scale extravaganza!
Surprise someone on his or her big day! We have awoken birthday honorees in their bedrooms, surprised job promotions and birthday celebrants at their places of employment, delivered fine Scotch whisky, and performed other ceremonies of joy and embarrassment! As a stand-up comedian, Wayne can work with your input to provide a few minutes of banter to get the celebration off to a raucous start!
The pipes are a welcome addition to corporate celebrations, new facility open houses, new store grand openings, customer open houses, introducing new products, performing at trade shows or sales rallies—there is no limit to how you can use the pipes or many pipers and drummers for your company’s success. Again, we can arrange for two or three pipers, a side drummer, a bass drummer, all the way to a full band to give your event the flavor of a grand-scale extravaganza!
Energize your attendees and ceremoniously announce your opening session with the pipes and drums. We can do a medley outside the ballroom doors to summon your people away from the coffee and pastries to your meeting, and when the ballroom doors are opened we will lead your people in.
The pipes and drums will assemble across the front of your meeting room and continue to play as people file in and are seated. Following your opening greetings, the pipes and drums can strike up one more time to ceremoniously exit the room.
You can use the pipes to introduce a new product, formally pipe in a new organization officer, announce a new employee benefits plan, charge up the sales force, or whatever makes you want to toot your own horn!
Wayne has learned an amazing number of traditional Christmas songs that add flair to any Christmas celebration.
Wayne, solo and with small groupings of pipes and drums, has performed at many Kirking of the Tartans services as well as holiday services. The pipes are especially effective at sunrise services and outdoor summer services where electronic instruments may not be an option. Because of the nine-note limited range and scale of the pipes, not all hymns are playable. However, we have many standard hymns available and are open to request.
Of course the band does parades, too! Wayne has led parades as a solo piper, and the band frequently leads parades following the color guard. It is especially appropriate to have the band precede police or fire fighting units. (We don't follow horses.)