Outdoor wedding + Music = How easy?

[iwannadie]

So, planning a wedding is sure stressful....

My ole lady and I are planning an outdoor wedding and I really like the idea of music being available. We will not have power accessible and I have no idea where to begin to even get an idea if its doable(budget) or not.

Has anyone setup a portable PA with a generator and rented all of it as I have no PA or generator.... I am betting its going to be far more costly than I am willing to spend but before I rule it out I am trying to learn as much as I can before ruling it out.

 

[SolarBell]

How many people? How big of an area? Portable PA with a generator is pretty easy. Just need a really long extension cord or a really quiet genny. Depending on where you are, any decent A/V production or rental house should be able to set you up. If it's small enough, even a decent battery and inverter might do the trick.

 

[iwannadie]

Its all going to be pretty small, 50 people or so in an outdoor area. I'd guess the are where the music would be setup in a gazebo to be maybe 10-15 square foot.

I was looking online at local equipment setups, cheaper than I expected for generators(less than $100 a day). All of the AV places want to be contacted for pricing so far so I don't know about that yet. 2 decent speakers would be plenty and something I could plug a laptop into as source is all I need / want.

 

[XJensen]

We had a 3 piece string and wind set. They all play in SF and Napa. Nice Itallian type music. We had about 100 people and it was great. With no power they were able to move around easily to play during the wedding, drinks and odorous and dinner.

Back in 2007 that cost $1200 I think. Included a two hour drive to the wedding site.

The dj had a long exrention cord....

 

[lawagoneer]

Don't laugh but a good quality automotive system run thru house speakers would work quite well. My current Jeep has a simple system but my old Blazer was fully equipped with amps crossovers and subs. On more than one occasion I provided portable entertainment. I would open the rear tail gate to use the sub-woofers, I would disconnect the rear speakers and connect my Bose 901s. With ghe CD changer we would have hours of music and the 2.8 V6 in my Blazer ran quieter than any generator. Worse come to worse I'd need a jump start to go home. Didn't cost anything except a few dollars for speaker wire the first time.

 

[iwannadie]

Don't laugh but a good quality automotive system run thru house speakers would work quite well. My current Jeep has a simple system but my old Blazer was fully equipped with amps crossovers and subs. On more than one occasion I provided portable entertainment. I would open the rear tail gate to use the sub-woofers, I would disconnect the rear speakers and connect my Bose 901s. With ghe CD changer we would have hours of music and the 2.8 V6 in my Blazer ran quieter than any generator. Worse come to worse I'd need a jump start to go home. Didn't cost anything except a few dollars for speaker wire the first time.

I really considered that route actually. We are going for more of a simple family BBQ and not a traditional wedding/reception so a vehicle parked with music pouring out would fit right in ha. Thanks for reinforcing that idea.

I thought that home speakers are different than the car stuff and didn't work together(different voltage?).

 

[rockclimber]

I do this for a living.

It can be as expensive or as cheap as you want

What would you like to know?


The easiest way to do what you want to do is with a deep cycle marine grade battery, an inverter, and some powered speakers

Where are you located?

 

[lawagoneer]

Most home speakers are 8 ohm and most car speakers are 4 or 8 ohm. Almost all stereo s are stable at either.

 

[XJLI]

Most home speakers are 8 ohm and most car speakers are 4 or 8 ohm. Almost all stereo s are stable at either.

eh, i wouldnt really agree with that but it isnt relevant anyway.

also being in the biz, its up to your checkbook. on the low side you can rent a little honda gennie and run a powered speaker with your ipod plugged in and have "enough" coverage for a small area. on the high side you can have a pro company come in with a baller generator and run all their sound and lights like theyre plugged into a wall.

hell, if youre on a real budget and DJs arent your thing, spend ~$3-400 on a nice bluetooth speaker that also is battery operated and control the music from your phone in your pocket, then you can bring it home and use it whenever you want. my little JBL speaker that cost 70 bucks lasts 6 hours and can provide background music for a patio area, the high end units are INSANE how loud and how high quality they are.

i've heard the klipsch KMC1 and it is awesome, i'm sure this one is crazy good.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_714KMC3/Klipsch-Music-Center-KMC-3-Black.html?tp=63340