Who better to sing you songs about love than a husband and wife musical duo? With a passion for epic vocal harmonies and celebrations of love, Amelia and Ryan created Paper Hearts to provide couples with high-end wedding entertainment. Playing at wedding ceremonies, canapés sets and receptions in Sydney and Melbourne, they soon expanded their entertainment offering with help from a carefully curated selection of their most talented friends. Below, we chat to Amelia about the Paper Hearts journey, the process to book them for your wedding and their unique, personalised services.

Hey Amelia! Describe Paper Hearts in three words…
Personalised, responsive and fun!

How did Paper Hearts start and what has it become since then?
Ryan and I started way back in 2010 performing all around Sydney in pubs, clubs and restaurants etc (we had some great names for ourselves back then then too haha). We formed Paper Hearts around 2015 to specialise in weddings/events as we found this is where our hearts lies, and we’ve been in love with the wedding industry ever since. In 2019 we packed up the Sydney life and moved to Melbourne and expanded our business to book a small roster of other artists under the Paper Hearts umbrella in both NSW and VIC. It’s now our little Paper Hearts team of artists we love and know our clients will love too.

Image: Zoe Morley Photography

How do couples book you for their wedding? What’s the process?
Easy peasy! We have a contact page on our website to tell us when you’re getting married and a little about what you’re looking for (witty banter is always appreciated). We’ll let them know which artists are available for their date and share our package/pricing information to get the ball rolling.

What packages do you offer?
There are three main packages we offer to keep things nice and simple, but of course we can customise something to suit various ideas and budgets.

The three main packages we offer are:

‘all the feels’ – Live music for ceremony, canapés & ½ reception + DJ (this is our most popular package and our favourite of all)

‘just a crush’ – Live music for ceremony, canapés + dinner

‘short and sweet’ – Live music for your ceremony + canapés

Image: Zoe Morley Photography

Do you book out quickly? When should couples book you in if they want you to play at their wedding
Most couples will book 9-15 months out, and sometimes further out if they have booked a popular Saturday date in say February/March or October/November. We of course accept bookings with much shorter timeframes too so don’t be afraid to reach out and enquire – we have a fabulous team of artists at the ready!

What kind of input do couples have in the song list for the night?
As much or as little as they like – we love receiving our couples input and we have our ‘wedding info’ form we provide to our clients encouraging them to let us know what songs they want to hear! Most couples like to give us their key song selections (ceremony aisle, reception first dance etc) plus a handful of favourites from our online song list and leave the rest in our capable hands to read the room/set the right vibe. This gives us a good idea to what sort of music they like and want to hear. We are also willing and able to learn a few songs for each of our couples too, which is something we always enjoy doing.

What are your favourite songs to play at a ceremony?
Oooooo! Tricky one!

The Paper Kites – Bloom

David Gray – The One I Love

Ed Sheeran – Tenerife Sea

Plus heaps more!

Image: Red Berry Photography

What about at the reception?
Ben E King – Stand By Me

Toploader – Dancing in the Moonlight

Fleetwood Mac – Dreams

Do you take requests on the night?
Yes absolutely! If we know them we can absolutely play them live (if they are appropriate of course, haha). Our DJ can take requests on the night too for the dance floor.

Why is good music so important to a wedding?
So many reasons. Music brings celebrations to life so in our eyes it’s absolutely vital to get the music right as it sets the vibe/tone/atmosphere for the whole event. It’s all about enjoyment and it’s not hard to get into the good feels of a wedding when you have awesome live music playing.

We’re also human as well which means we can read the crowd and fit into what guests are getting into. There are some great Spotify playlists around but there is nothing like reading the room and selecting songs in the order that will really take your guests on a journey – that’s what our musicians and DJs do best.

Image: Murray Enders

Have you noticed if you play at a particular style of wedding more than others?
Yes, our most common style is probably the more relaxed and intimate weddings – think wineries, farms, coastal venues and cool inner-city urban-wineries (bonus for us, they’re the ones we love!) with an average of 80-100 guests.

What’s been your favourite wedding venue so far?
There are so many awesome venues around so this is a very hard question to answer. But… if we have to pick a favourite:

In Melbourne – The Farm Yarra Valley

In Sydney – The Blue Room Bondi (totally biased as we got married here!)

What other services do you offer?
So glad you asked!

  • MC duties for your reception
  • ‘Your song’ – we can write, record and perform a song as a special something for the big day or record your aisle or first dance song.
  • Videography to capture the essential highlights from your day (ceremony + speeches)

Image: Michael Briggs Photography

Tell us more about your original song service…
Ryan and I love to write songs for our couples and with their collaboration and input we’ll tell their story through song. The song will be professionally recorded which our couples can use however they like (e.g. wedding video, photo montage, share with friends etc). Sometimes the song is a surprise for their partner! We’ve also performed the song on the day for the unknowing bride which is always such a fun/nice moment, and emotional at times too haha (happy tears of course).

You’re based in Melbourne. What do you love about Melbourne weddings?
The inner city venues in Melbourne are amazing. Just so… how do I say… Melbourne – vibes for days! I don’t think there is a huge difference between Sydney and Melbourne weddings – we love them all!

Image: Ashleigh Haase

Are you available for interstate or destination weddings?
Absolutely! We have artists that have played all over for weddings and can definitely travel for interstate or destination weddings. It’s a little more challenging for Ryan and I now with our baby girl Neve but never say never (family vacay?).

Best testimonial you’ve ever received?
“I don’t think my husband and I could rave more about Paper Hearts, in particular our duo Ryan and Amelia. From the very beginning and right up to the day itself, they were always there for advice and you made the process so easy. I didn’t need to think twice. I don’t think I will ever forget that special moment standing outside the door as I was about to walk down the aisle and I heard the beautiful rendition of our ceremony song. They went above and beyond and we couldn’t thank-you enough. The guests kept remarking on how fabulous you both were. We only have one regret.. we wish we could’ve ignored our wedding duties and just listen to the duo all night!!!” – Michelle Hall

Thanks Amelia for sharing the Paper Hearts story with us today! You guys are oh-so talented and certainly spoil your couples with your range of awesome packages and services. I love that you write original songs for them too! To find out more about Paper Hearts, visit their website or check them out on the Polka Dot Directory.

Headshot by Zoe Morley Photography