Hiring a professional Scottish Piper for your wedding will add a traditional feel to your big day and enhance the musical experience for everyone. There are of course certain things which will affect the impact your wedding piper will have on your big day; like his ability to play the bagpipes; the piper's repertoire of bagpipe tunes; the quality of the piper's uniform; the bagpiper's wedding experience and his punctuality, but by asking the right questions and making the right enquiries you can be confident that your wedding piper will be the right one. Be wary of a wedding piper quoting a very cheap price.
The piper's musical ability
You should check out the musical ability of your wedding piper either by going to hear him play or by a recommendation from someone un-biased, like a wedding planner or hotel conference manager. If this isn't possible, your wedding piper should usually be able to let you see some video of him playing at another wedding or event. If not be wary of hiring that piper.
Wedding Piper uniform
A Scottish piper should always be in full highland dress for your wedding, whether it is no 2 or no 1 uniform and it is always worth checking that this is the case, to avoid disappointment on the your wedding day. Check out website pictures of your piper to make sure they don't look like a raggamuffin. Our pipers always wear full no 2 highland uniform as standard and the no 1 uniform if requested.
Scottish Piper Repertoire of tunes
If you have little knowledge of bagpipe tunes, your wedding piper should be able to guide you as to what bagpipe tunes are available to you and the selection should be varied and include a selection of more upbeat and more stately pipe tunes to suit the various parts of you wedding day. A good wedding piper will usually have a selection of tunes available for you to listen to on his website. If not the bagpiper may be new to piping at weddings and you should possibly look elsewhere. When choosing your tunes, there is no right or wrong as to what tunes should be played. Go with what you like and if stuck, be guided by your piper.