If you have been to a wedding since roughly 2017 and did not hear this song during the first dance, I regret to inform you that you attended a fake wedding. Ed Sheeran's "Perfect" moved into every ceremony playlist on Earth, quietly evicted "A Thousand Years" from the top spot, and today it is being folded onto a single guitar with nobody else in the room.
This is a MelodyChords arrangement, which is my dramatic way of saying: the melody and the chords happen at the same time, on the same six strings, no band and no crying uncle on the mic. In under two minutes you get the whole swaying thing — and yes, there is a free PDF, because I am not a monster.
How this MelodyChords arrangement works
The golden rule of chord-melody is simple: the highest note you play is always the tune — the part your gran hums — and everything underneath it quietly supplies the harmony. "Perfect" makes this friendly because it lives in a rolling 6/8 feel, so instead of strumming you fingerpick each chord one note at a time and make sure the top of every little roll lands on the melody note. Under the hood it's the timeless I–vi–IV–V pop cycle (in the original that's roughly Ab–Fm–Db–Eb, though most of us slap a capo on and think in comfy G–Em–C–D shapes), so your left hand mostly rocks between four familiar grips.
The one concrete takeaway: stop treating melody and accompaniment as two separate jobs. Anchor your thumb on the bass note, let your fingers roll upward, and aim the last note of each roll at the tune. Once that clicks, half the fingerstyle wedding repertoire opens up under the exact same technique.
Play this once at a reception and you are now, permanently, "the guitar person." There is no appeals process and no early parole. If you want the Guitar Pro file, the tab and the original video, they're waiting on my Patreon — bring tissues and a capo.