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Winter can be a magical time for a wedding; crisp snow, mulled wine, log fires & Christmas decorations all add to that fairytale image. The reality, however, can be very different.With winters becoming increasingly milder, it is a huge gamble to rely on the weather to be accommodating. It's much more likely that it will be overcast, raining and blowing a gale, which doesn't make for good outdoor photos!With this in mind it is essential to have a back up plan:

Sounds Ideal are proud to announce that they are providing a string quartet to play at St David's Hall as part of the Welsh Prom season this year.

The quartet will be playing a selection of music in the lobby of the hall, welcoming people as they arrive for the American Prom on Thursday 14th July.

Sounds Ideal are proud to support the Cardiff New Brass Festival.

The Cardiff New Brass Festival (CNBF) is a first for the Welsh music scene. The aim of the festival is to promote exciting new music for brass, showcasing cutting edge, accessible brass performance in Cardiff on the international stage.

Sounds Ideal are proud to announce their new residential string quartet!

The members of the quartet are all prize-winning graduates of the School of Music at Cardiff University. As well as being extremeley talented individual musicians their long experience of playing together has made them into a formidable quartet.

With the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton on the 29th April fast approaching, talk is inevitably turning to their choice of music for the ceremony. Speculation and rumour is rife!

The first thing to do in these circumstances is to look back through the history of Royal Weddings and see what has been used in the past:

Charles and Diana, for example, used Jeremiah Clarke's Trumpet Voluntary as the processional. Diana also personally chose "I Vow To Thee, My Country", an adaptation of a piece by Gustav Hoslt; a piece that was later to be played at her funeral.

Forget Paris, New York or Hawaii - according to a recent travel agency survey of over 1000 newly weds the top honeymoon destination for 2010 is the town of Paphos on Cyprus.

The island beat the more traditional destinations suggesting, perhaps, that the trend is moving more to the cheaper, value-for-money honeymoons rather than expensive luxuries.

Other popular destinations scored highly in the survey with the Dominican Republic coming second, and Cape Verde in Africa coming in third. Traditional cities such as Paris or Venice received no votes at all.

You want your wedding to be a memorable occasion that your friends will be talking about for a long time. The best way to do this is through the music that you choose!

For the ceremony you need to play on people's emotions. The right music, played by a string quartet, will have everyone weeping with happiness. Take inspiration from reality TV shows such as the X-Factor; what songs do they play when a contestant "wins through against all adversity"?

According to recent studies the most popular song chosen for the married couple's first dance in 2010 was 'Everything' by Michael Bublé.

This was followed closely by 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You' by Andy Wiliams and 'Better Together' by Jack Johnson.

Remember that if you have a special song that you want performed at your wedding we can arrange it to be played in four parts by a string quartet or other ensemble if you prefer!

You may have noticed that the Sounds Ideal website has recently had a facelift - in fact the whole business has had a bit of an overhaul in 2011.

The changes mean that the business runs more efficiently. This will ultimately result in a faster, cheaper, more reliable service for both musicians and clients. We also hope that we can provide a more personal service by utilising social media; we are not a faceless corporation and so would love to interact with potential customers.