are you having/did you have a piper at your wedding?

I did. He played while all the guests arrived, piped me in to the ceremony (all the way from the car, through the castle grounds, up the stairs and into the hall!). Then he played at the end of the ceremony, piped us out, then played all the way through the photos too (about 45 mins of photos I think). He was brilliant.

Actually we just asked him to play from his repertoire. We didn't have any specific requests, and he was absolutely fantastic. He did a couple of requests from our guests before the ceremony apparently.

He was unbelievably cheap (he came with the venue - was the Laird's personal piper!), so only cost us an extra £60. You'll pay a lot more than that in London I'd guess.

Hello! Yes we're having a piper - he's going to play whilst guests enter the church, when we all leave and outside the hotel where we're having the reception. Not being piped into dinner which is traditional as our restuarant has quite low ceilings and i think the noise will just reverberate!

One thing I was concious of was quality. I work on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh and there are so many shoddy pipers around. I was a bit nervous at being able to tell (am no bagpipe expert!). When I asked John, our piper, replied by saying had been the Lone Piper at the Edinburgh Tattoo on several occasions during his military career. I was like 'thats good enough for me'. If you can get one with military creditials then I guess thats a good sign!

I'm paying £165

Fab - great advice. have been quoted a number of different figures for 4hrs piping ranging between £180 to £280. will look out for the military credentials penguin1977!

(i have a similar issue with the venue ceilings being quite low, so i think he is going to have to pipe outside)

Thats a pretty good price range and similar to what I was quoted here in Edinburgh. That being said I was quoted £600 by the piper who piped at Madonnas wedding at Skibo for 4 hours work (admitedly he would have to travel from Aviemore but come on.....).

The only plus point to being piped into dinner is that the piper will raise a toast to you both with a wee dram of whisky once he has led you to your top table (so you'd have to let your venue know about this) - your H2B might quite like that being Scottish and all......

We just had one at our family party he was only 15 but really good. I think he was from Maldon/chelmsford but I'm just waiting for more details from Dad who booked him.

My dad had one at his wedding in may and it was great actually (i was a bit unconvinced beforehand). lone piper to lead into the ceremony and out again and then he played outside in the grounds during the photos as well which gave it a really good atmosphere and something for the people standing about to focus on.

they also had the full pipe band at the reception just before diner- complete with scottish country dancers- about 20 of them all together so pretty impressive. it was good fun and a bit different- i've been to quite a few weddings in the past few years and always appreciate a bit of variety

i'm not sure how much they charged as my dad works with one of the guys so i think they got a pretty good deal.

Oooh, you spoke to Spud did you Penguin? My hubby knows him from footie trips and I was GUTTED that he didn't speak to him about being our piper, but as it turns out we got a much better deal with Megan (yes, a lady piper which was uber cool!) from Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band and her pal Christopher, a drummer from Strathyclyde Police Pipe Band. We 'won' Megan in an auction so what we paid isn't really relevant to the usual price folk would pay.

They rocked - played as guests arrived, during the mingling, piped me in (which was just awesome) and piped us out, during photos etc, and into the meal. I was worried about the noise level with a drummer too but it was just awesome - I'd recommend getting a drummer to to ANYONE wanting a piper!

No idea what you'll pay in London, Bluewater .... But good luck finding someone good!

(and don't worry bout asking them to play specific things, unless you really know your stuff you'll not likely be able to name any tunes - our 2 played reels of their chosing to suit the 'mood' of the moment, and let me know what I'd be piped into so I could listen to it on You Tube beforehand. They didn't play anything I recognised other than Highland Catherdral, but I didn't want typical 'Princes Street/Royal Mile' bagpipe music, so I was happy they did their own thing!)

Yes indeed I spoke to Spud. It wasn't for my wedding it was for a work thing so perhaps he quoted corporate rates, but still I couldn't afford it so got someone local via my actual wedding piper! He was a lovely chap though!

Our piper played while the guests were arriving at the church, he then piped me in (to Highland Cathedral) ... then he piped us in to the top table (To Mairi's wedding) ... it cost us a bottle of whisky ? because he was a friend of the family ?

Our Piper is playing as guests arrive, he will pipe my down the aisle (Highland Cathedral) and us back up and as the pics are being taken. He will then pipe us into the meal. Our venue has this as an additional item and its costing us £95.00 (Edinburgh). As before he will just pipe from his "playlist" lol!

E x

Oh we have booked Spud for our wedding in May - he wasn't as much as £600 but guess he it's because he doesn't need to travel as far.

Anyway, we're going to have him piping guests into the venue as they arrive, me down the aisle and H2B (well H by that point) into the meal.