wedding bands 25 January 2014 at 2:04PM in Weddings & anniversaries 14 replies 2.2K views

Whattodonow

I did not realise how much they cost! All quotes are coming back as £1000>!!

Other than searching out college bands, anyone got any ideas on how I can reduce this cost?
Thanks!

x

wiogs

Have prerecorded music or look for a cheaper band

F1F93

Could you cut down on the number of members in the band?
My evening entertainment is a singer/songwriter, who either plays solo stuff (just him and his guitar) or with a full band. He charges twice as much for the full band, but we're not that fussed tbh, so we're just having him on his own.

scmp

Eughhhh i know!
We wanted a local folk guitar singer (any of them really) and they are all £500 or there abouts! I was thinking about 2-300 for a couple of hours! I was suprised to find that fairly new artists charge just as much to those who have been doing it years and play quite often accross North Wales.

I will be keeping an eye on this thread!

Evil_Olive

It could be that you're getting overcharged because of the magic word 'wedding' A lot of bands only do weddings because they pay so much better and if you're going through an agency their commission will add at least 10-20% plus they may add various 'fees' especially if the agency also specialise in weddings or other extra special events.

It also depends what kind of band you want. If you are OK with a standard Rock/Pop covers type band I would suggest finding out which of your local pubs put on regular live music (be aware that some live music pubs specialise in 'originals' bands which can be quite off the wall musically so find out which are which), go along to check a few bands out (often free to get in) and, if you like one, speak to them afterwards, get a phone number and an idea of price - pubs often only pay £350 and up for a 1 - 2 hour set in my area (Essex) so they could be considerably cheaper provided there's not a lot of travel or special requirements. You can always ask Landlords/venues what they are like for reliability etc as a lot of these bands will play several pubs in the area regularly.

Also be aware that these types of bands may also charge a bit more for weddings and similar than they do for a pub gig because they may have to travel further and provide things (like a PA system) that are normally provided by the pub. Your venue may have one of these though that a band could use. A band will usually need to arrive and set up much earlier for a wedding than a pub as well.

(My OH is in a band & plays pubs a lot - got this info from him - he's played a few weddings this way)

weebit

I've got a 5-piece rock band for free! They're all friends of mine, so we've agreed they'll play my wedding instead of buying us a wedding gift. I'll probably end up buying them a bottle of rum or something to say thank you

Jackie132

Book a DJ for your wedding. It will really reduce your cost and you can spare money.

Whattodonow

Thank you for your replies! I will deffo start going out to places and speaking to the musicians on.

scmp - i'm also getting married in north wales

scmp

Cool Whattodonow! we are doing Llandudno then Llanfairfechan. We were loking for an acoustic guitar player to be honest to go with our folksy wedding.
How is your hunt going!

redfragglebiker

Are there any venues (pubs ect) that have live bands in the style that you would like? Perhaps ask them for contact details and ask what their price would be for a "family event" to gauge if they are genuinely that expensive or of they're hiking it up cos it's a wedding!

minerva_windsong

I was going to suggest asking them to play a shorter set - so if they'd usually play for three hours, see what two hours would cost. If you want something to fill the gap afterwards then maybe you could ask guests to send you a song suggestion, put them all on an iPod/Spotify playlist and just have that.