Add-on
Live cocktail hour music for Michigan weddings
A live acoustic set, added to your Menzo Weddings DJ booking, for the hour while you take portraits and your guests find a drink.
Brian & Yu-ju, Zingerman's Cornman Farms. Photograph: The Bigger Picture Photography
The vows are done, someone hands your guests a drink, and they start finding the people they haven't seen in years. The music should feel like part of that hour, not a radio left on.
A live cocktail-hour set is an add-on to your Menzo Weddings Wedding DJ and MC booking. Most couples start with the DJ and MC for the reception, and cocktail hour is one of the places they add live music. Because it's part of the same booking, the hand-off from the last song of cocktail hour to your grand entrance is planned from the start.
Menzo Weddings plays live cocktail hour music at weddings in Ann Arbor, Metro Detroit and across Michigan. Founder Dave Menzo has been performing since 2001 and has played Michigan weddings for more than a decade. Cocktail hour is the closest set of the day: live, a few feet from your guests, and people stop and listen. At Brian and Yu-ju's wedding at Zingerman's Cornman Farms in Dexter, Dave sang through cocktail hour before moving behind the DJ booth for the reception. At a 2024 wedding he played piano and guitar for the ceremony and then the cocktail hour that followed.
What's included in a live cocktail hour set?
- A live set, played in the room. Acoustic guitar with vocals, or piano, played live.
- Music from the recessional to the reception. The hour between your ceremony and dinner, wherever your guests gather.
- A set built around your songs. The ones you love, the ones your families will recognise, and none of the ones you'd rather never hear.
- A clean hand-off. The set ends as the reception doors open, and your DJ and MC are ready for your grand entrance.
Some details depend on your venue, so we'll confirm them with you rather than promise them here: the sound setup for an outdoor patio or lawn, power, and how the music moves if cocktail hour is in a different place from the ceremony. Tell us about your venue when you check your date.
Why have live music for cocktail hour?
It gives your guests something to gather around while you're away. For most couples, cocktail hour is when the photographer takes you off for portraits. Your guests are on their own for an hour, often in a new place, with people they've just met. That's when a quiet room feels awkward.
A live set changes the hour. Guests drift over. Someone's grandfather asks what that song was. Kids sit down on the grass to watch. It marks the space between the ceremony and the party, and it tells everyone the day has relaxed a little.
It's also a chance for music that doesn't fit anywhere else. Your ceremony songs are chosen for meaning and your reception is built for dancing. Cocktail hour can be the songs you just like: the album you played on repeat the summer you met, or a slowed-down version of something that would normally be loud.
Wedding storyBrian & Yu-ju
Zingerman's Cornman Farms, Dexter · 2018See the wedding
What does a cocktail hour set cover?
Your venue and your photographer set the timing. The set follows the hour as it changes:
- Guests arriving. Music already playing when your guests reach the bar, something familiar, so nobody feels the gap between the ceremony and what comes next.
- Settling in. A gentle set under the conversation while people catch up and introduce their partners, mostly songs people half-know.
- While you're away. Once the crowd has loosened up, the songs your guests know best, the ones that get a table humming along.
- Doors open. The music shifts to move people inside, and your DJ and MC take it from there with your grand entrance.
Live music or a DJ for cocktail hour?
Both work, and we do both, so here's the plain version.
A DJ playing a cocktail playlist is simple and flexible. It can be any song in any style, at a volume that suits the room, and it's already part of your Wedding DJ and MC booking.
Live music feels different. Guests drift toward it instead of just hearing it. The songs are ones you chose, played for the people in the room, rather than a list anyone could press play on. It sets cocktail hour apart from both the ceremony and the dance floor.
If the hour is short, or your cocktail space is small and loud, a playlist may be the right call. If you've got a lawn, a patio or a long hour while you're out for portraits, live is worth it. Our cocktail hour music guide covers song ideas and the trade-offs in more detail.
How do we choose songs for cocktail hour?
Think about who's in the room. A Detroit crowd might love hearing a Motown song played quietly on an acoustic guitar. A college friend group might light up at a slowed-down version of something from your senior year. Grandparents tend to come over for the songs they danced to. Our Motown wedding songs guide has ideas if your families grew up on Detroit soul.
Then tell us what you don't want. A do-not-play list matters as much at cocktail hour as on the dance floor. We'll build the set from there and run it past you before the day.
How does planning cocktail hour music work?
- Check your date. Tell us your date and your venue, choose the Wedding DJ and MC, and add a cocktail-hour set. Dave reads every inquiry and replies himself.
- We talk. About your guests, your venue's layout and the feel you want for the hour.
- We plan the set. Your must-plays, your do-not-plays, and how the hour ends and the reception begins.
- The day. The music plays from the moment your guests arrive until the reception doors open.
Cocktail hours at Michigan farm venues
Farm venues around Ann Arbor suit this kind of hour. At Zingerman's Cornman Farms in Dexter, Brian and Yu-ju's guests gathered under paper lanterns while Dave sang, and later that evening he DJ'd their reception. At Revel Run in Chelsea, Katie and Dennis's groomsmen played cornhole on the lawn outside the timber hall, the kind of open space where a guitar and a bar is all your guests need.
See Katie and Dennis's wedding, browse more of the portfolio, or add live ceremony music so the same acoustic sound runs from the aisle to the bar.
“Our guests absolutely loved every minute of the ceremony accompaniments as well as the reception hits!”
Pairs well with
Plan it with the rest of your day
Start here
Wedding DJ and MC
Your reception, planned with you song by song, and an MC who keeps the night on time.
Learn more
Add-on
Live ceremony music
Guitar and vocals, or piano, for the prelude, the processional and the walk back up the aisle.
Learn more
Hybrid
DJ plus live music
Live drums, guitar, sax or violin, in any combination, played on top of the DJ set.
Learn moreCommon questions
How long is a cocktail hour set?
As long as your cocktail hour. Most run about an hour, and they tend to stretch when portraits run long. Send us your timeline and we'll plan the set around it, including what happens at the moment the reception doors open.
Will the music be too loud for guests to talk?
No. Cocktail hour music should sit under conversation, not over it. People are meeting each other's families and catching up with friends they haven't seen in years. We keep it at a level where the music is there when someone stops to listen, and easy to talk over when they don't.
Guitar or piano for cocktail hour?
Either. Guitar and vocals is the most flexible, because it goes wherever your guests are: a patio, a lawn, a corner of the barn. Piano suits a room that has one, or a more formal setting. We'll choose based on your venue.
Can you play cocktail hour in a different spot from the ceremony?
Often the ceremony is on a lawn and cocktail hour is on a patio or in another room. That's normal. Tell us the layout of your venue and we'll plan how the music moves from one to the other, so your guests aren't walking in silence.
Can guests make requests during cocktail hour?
That's your call. Some couples love the idea of an uncle asking for his favorite song. Others would rather keep the set they chose. Tell us which you'd like and we'll handle it that way.
Can you play cocktail hour and then DJ the reception?
Yes, that's how it's booked: a cocktail-hour set added to your Wedding DJ and MC, planned together. At Brian and Yu-ju's wedding at Zingerman's Cornman Farms in Dexter, Dave Menzo sang through cocktail hour and then DJ'd the reception. For live music over the DJ set itself, see DJ plus live music.
We'll be taking photos during cocktail hour. Do we still need music?
Your guests do. Cocktail hour is often the longest stretch of the day where your guests are on their own, and it's the part they remember if it's quiet and awkward. Live music gives them something to gather around while you're out with your photographer.
Do we need live music if we're already hiring a DJ?
Not necessarily. A DJ can play a good cocktail playlist. Live music changes the feel of the hour: people drift over to watch, and it marks the space between the ceremony and the party. Our cocktail hour music guide goes through the trade-offs.
Check your date
Is your date still open?
Tell us when and where. Dave replies personally.