How to choose a magician for your wedding

Before thinking about a magician at all, map out where your guests will be standing around with nothing to do. In practice that is almost always the drinks reception, the stretch while photographs are taken, the room turnaround before the meal, and the slow middle of a long dinner service.

Those gaps determine how many hours you need and when the performer should arrive. Booking entertainment for a slot where something is already happening wastes it.

Close up magic is performed among guests in small groups, with no staging, sound or announcement. It suits receptions, seated meals and any moving schedule, and it doubles as an icebreaker between two families who have just met.

A stage show is one shared performance for the whole room, which needs a performance area, sightlines and usually a microphone. It works as an evening centrepiece rather than as background entertainment.

Larger weddings often use both: close up magic during the day, a stage show after the meal.

How long do you need before the first performance starts, and when will you arrive? A performer who arrives with minutes to spare cannot adapt to a schedule that has slipped, and schedules always slip.

How do you handle speeches, the cake and the first dance? The answer should be that performances pause around anything scheduled.

What happens if our timings change on the day? Flexibility here is worth more than any specific routine in the act.

Do you coordinate with our venue or planner directly? That saves you managing it yourself on a day when you have plenty else to do.

Two hours covers a drinks reception properly for a modest guest list. Three hours covers a reception plus part of the wedding breakfast. Beyond around a hundred and fifty guests, three hours is closer to a minimum than a generous choice, because covering every group takes real time.

For reference, Mr. Vail's close up magic is £150 for one hour, £275 for two, £375 for three and £750 for all day coverage, with stage magic from £350.

Good dates go first, and Saturdays in summer go earliest. If you have a venue and a date, entertainment can be confirmed at the same time as anything else, and it removes a decision from the list later.