Getting married next year - looking into Entertainment now !!

bluenoseam

£8-900 - my first reaction to that is "is that all?", second is "wouldn't hire a wedding band that cheap!". Sorry to burst your bubble, but wedding bands are professionals, they're not the "we'll do it for as much lager as we can drink and a pizza" variety of bands you see in pubs. These are people who practise for hours, spend hours learning all the latest lovey dovey stuff & are drilled to within an inch of their lives because shock horror, bridezillas are a pain in the rear when something's not PERFECT!

(that's not a suggestion that you're a bridezilla by the way - just incase anyone gets tetchy!)

Ultimately you also have to look at bare facts, an average reception will probably be around the 3hr play time mark, instruments & their upkeep aren't cheap & well, they're not turning up in jeans & a t-shirt. There's then insurance, associated expenses (travel, storage, practise facilities) - it's not a cheap business, so while £1000 sounds pricey, it's really not so bad. Put it into context for you, a new set of guitar strings will set you back around £8 which will be replaced for 2-3 guitars nightly, drumsticks are £10 a set & will possibly last a full gig but I wouldn't bet on it.

Personally if it were me I wouldn't be charging anything under a grand to perform at a wedding because of the sideshow involved, it's basically a full time job. (And that's over & above their day jobs I hasten to add)

bluebird1979

im not the bride


im the groom

bluebird1979

and I appreciate your comments though that around the price ive been quoted already is the going rate for things.


I guess you just don't know the price of things until you really look into them.


and as others have said as soon as you mention the word wedding, people start seeing the $$$ signs.


ive asked for a few more quotes now this morning, so hopefully they might come back in the mid £700s I guess ill just have to suck it up and go with one of them as it seems a band for around that price is very good going indeed

Bluebell1000

The band at our wedding 4 years ago cost £1500 plus some alcohol! That was a 10 piece ska band though. They were amazing

marywooyeah

[QUOTE=bluebird1979;65796770
just crazy how everything to do with a wedding is so damn expensive!![/QUOTE]

have you been on the weddings board? there's some great moneysaving tips on there!

bluebird1979

no not yet
still finding my way on here
where is the weddings board?

Idiophreak

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142

Arthien

This probably won't help if you're really set on having a band, but don't forget to bear in mind the timings of everything. We got married at 1, then by the time we'd had the service, the welcome drinks, the 3 course meal and the speeches, there was only about an hour or so of guests standing around drinking and chatting before the disco started for the evening! We wouldn't have had time to fit a band in and it would have felt rushed. I wanted a band originally, but looking back on it I'm glad we didn't, and by the looks of things it saved us a fortune!

Our venue did recommend a band that played there regularly as being popular and reasonably-priced, perhaps you could ask your venue if they've got any contacts?

bluebird1979

our venue is a marquee
the marquee company have been great though in recommending local firms for the bar/toilets etc

Idiophreak

Arthien wrote: »

This probably won't help if you're really set on having a band, but don't forget to bear in mind the timings of everything. We got married at 1, then by the time we'd had the service, the welcome drinks, the 3 course meal and the speeches, there was only about an hour or so of guests standing around drinking and chatting before the disco started for the evening! We wouldn't have had time to fit a band in and it would have felt rushed. I wanted a band originally, but looking back on it I'm glad we didn't, and by the looks of things it saved us a fortune!

Err. I think most people (certainly all the weddings I've been to), have people dancing to the band instead of having a disco.

We had 3 sets from the band (45mins each iirc) and played like half an hour of ipod songs between each of them...and before and after.