Early stages and the Reception era (1985–1989) The band has its origins in the Lost Pandas, which folded in 1984 when Janet Rigby, the drummer for the band, left following departure of guitarist Michael Duane. David Gedge and the Lost Pandas' bass player, Keith Gregory, continued the band, renaming it the Wedding Present. Seeing that they were growing more popular in the American college radio scene, the band turned towards America for their next project. The band decided to re-record
Bizarro track "Brassneck" with the former
Big Black frontman
Steve Albini.
Seamonsters,
Hit Parade 1 and
Hit Parade 2 were released in the United States in 1991 and 1992 by New York-based pseudo-indie label First Warning Records. Shortly after the 1992 singles scheme had ended, the band announced they were leaving RCA. In August 2010 it was announced that De Castro would not be touring with the Wedding Present for the Autumn 21st anniversary tour of
Bizarro, and that her last gig would be at 28 August 2010 at Gedge's mini festival "At the Edge of the Sea" in Brighton. This marked the end of a 12-year association with Gedge, stretching back to when Cinerama was formed. She was replaced by Pepe le Moko. A new Wedding Present album,
Valentina, was released in March 2012. Shortly before its release, guitarist Graeme Ramsay left the band after six years. and was replaced by Patrick Alexander (ex-The Young Playthings and The Pipettes). During 2012, the Wedding Present toured a set which usually featured the whole of
Seamonsters, performed live and in album order. The rest of the set was a mixture of songs from
Valentina and the back catalogue. In April of the year, the Wedding Present toured Australia for the first time, playing concerts in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. On 25 October 2012, the
4 Songs Extended Play was released on download only. These four new songs ("Journey Into Space", "Pain Perdu", "1000 Fahrenheit" and "Can You Keep a Secret") recorded during the
Valentina sessions could be downloaded following the purchase of
Valentina: The Story of a Wedding Present, a book documenting the making of the long player itself.
Valentina itself was re-released in May 2015 after being re-interpreted and re-recorded by David Gedge's other band Cinerama. In early 2013 the band started a world tour including taking in the US, Australia and for the first time New Zealand. The Wedding Present played
George Best and
The Hit Parade in their entirety on this tour celebrating the 25th and 21st 'birthday' of these albums respectively. The band released their ninth album,
Going, Going..., on 2 September 2016. 2017 saw the 30th anniversary of the release of
George Best, an anniversary tour and a feature-length documentary about the record titled
The Wedding Present: Something Left Behind. In mid-2019, the band issued a completely re-recorded version of 1988 compilation
Tommy, plus their first picture disc: a 10" single featuring two new songs. In late 2019, the band toured playing
Bizarro in its entirety. During this tour the band were joined on guitar by Jon Stewart of
Sleeper and Chris Hardwick from
My Life Story on drums.
Acoustic versions and 24 Songs (2020–present) In 2020 during the
COVID-19 pandemic, the band recorded various acoustic versions of the bands' tracks, with each musician recording their part of the song from home. The songs were released on the band's social media accounts. Twelve tracks including a duet of a previously unrecorded Sleeper song called "We Should Be Together", recorded as a duet with
Louise Wener, were released in February 2021 as
Locked Down and Stripped Back. In December 2020 the band, and various ex-members and collaborators released an album of
James Bond–theme cover versions called ''Not From Where I'm Standing'', for the mental health charity
Campaign Against Living Miserably. In April 2021, the band re-released a 30th anniversary version of
Seamonsters including the B-sides to the singles released to promote the original 1991 album and tracks from a
John Peel Session. In October 2021, the band announced that in 2022 they would release a 7" single per month, featuring two new songs, for the duration of 2022, repeating their one-single-per-month approach of 1992. This
24 Songs project saw songs written by David Gedge and Sleeper guitarist Jon Stewart, collaborating to write tracks for the first time in the band's history. In May 2022 the band announced they would release
Locked Down and Stripped Back Volume Two, the second album of acoustic home recordings of Wedding Present and Cinerama classics, recorded by band and former band members. A musical based on the band's songs,
Reception: A New Musical, premiered in
Leeds in 2025. == Musical style ==