Is it important that your guests can hear the ceremony?
My take on this is, yes. You invited the people you care about most to share and witness this special event in your life and that’s exactly what they want to do. If they can watch but not hear, I feel they miss out on a lot.
There is another side to this however. A couple of celebrants I have worked with feel quite strongly that the vows are to be shared between the couple and the only people that need to be able to hear them are the couple and their witnesses.
If you do want your guests to hear then you may need to consider amplification. This will obviously depend upon the setting and numbers you have attending. A small group (<40) in a small church or private garden may enable everyone to hear without any assistance. As the emotion kicks in, I find many couples tend to talk a lot quieter and on occasion even the witnesses standing relatively close have had trouble hearing.
So if you are considering amplification, what should you look for or consider?
In most settings I would recommend to my clients they use a high quality UHF radio lapel microphone. Generally I place one on the celebrant and one on the groom. The one on the celebrant is a uni directional microphone which means it will primarily pickup their voice and not much else. On the groom, I place an Omni directional microphone. This will pickup the groom and the bride and if for some reason the celebrants mic failed it could pick them up too. It is important that professional quality equipment is used to ensure there is no interference, dropouts or hiss. In windy situations it is vital that wind jammers are used to minimise the wind noise. Mic placement is important too in order to minimise wind noise, avoid knocking or bumping and also to achieve optimum audio response. In extreme wind conditions I would recommend moving to a handheld wireless microphone with a large professional wind jammer.
Audio levels should be set so guests can hear comfortably without it sounding loud or obviously amplified.
I have had one celebrant refuse to wear a microphone. She was adamant she had a loud voice and that the guests would hear. The couple were very concerned about the 200 guests being able to hear and asked what I could do to ensure this could happen. The ceremony was being held outdoors in a private kiwi fruit orchid just out of Waiuku, South Auckland. There was no negotiating with the celebrant so I installed a boundary microphone on the ground between the bride and groom. This is something that is often used on stages to pickup actors. It is very discrete and effective, however can be effected by wind (and overhead aircraft!). In this situation it really did save the day, as despite her assertions of a loud voice, without the sound reinforcement only about 20% of the guests would have been able to enjoy the service.
An experienced DJ or Audio Visual provider should be able to advise you on the equipment and its placement and use to get optimal results. If they don’t sound confident or haven’t provided sound reinforcement for a ceremony before, you may want to consider looking elsewhere for support for this part of your day.
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