"What Do I Need To Know Before Booking Live Music For My Wedding?"

“Aghh!!”

We understand that organising a wedding can be stressful and overwhelming. When there are various wedding suppliers to consider and book, it can be a mind field when it comes to working out the “who, what and when?!”.

Your Musical Options…

As for the musical entertainment at your wedding, there are ultimately two main choices that you have; pre-recorded music - whether this is in the form of a DJ or simply playing music from your own device through the venue's own PA system (assuming they have one in some form or another). The other option is to book live music. Of course, you may decide that you’d like both! If you decide that you’d like to book live music, the next step is to figure out when you want the live music at your wedding i.e. the ceremony, drinks reception, evening reception. Once you’ve made this decision, you may already be starting to consider “what style of wedding musicians or live wedding band do I want?”.

The choice available to you ranges from acoustic wedding bands through to 10+ piece show bands, each covering a variety of repertoire and styles from popular UK and American tunes, through to repertoire and styles from other parts of the world. If you’re unsure with what you're looking for, a good starting point would would be to consider the following questions, which may help you to narrow down your search: Does the venue have a sound limiter? How much space is there on stage/in the performing area? How much time does the band require to set up?

Does The Venue Have A Sound Limiter?

It’s not uncommon for wedding venues to have a sound limiter installed. This is a device that measures noise levels and cuts the electricity supply when the maximum decibel (dB) is surpassed, usually for c. 3 seconds or more of this level being exceeded (not ideal, of course). Therefore, this should be a top consideration when choosing the style of live music (or the instrumentation used) and the number of wedding musicians that you book. From experience, most venues that have a sound limiter will have it set to between c. 90 – 100dB. If your venue does a have a limiter, it is also worth thinking about the style of the room that the musicians will be in (e.g. a cathedral style room – hard floor, walls and tall ceilings will amplify the sound more naturally and more easily set off the limiter), and where within’ the room the limiter is e.g. a limiter that is installed 5 metres from speakers/stage will be more sensitive to the performance than a limiter that is 30 metres away/ at the back of the room. For ourselves, as an acoustic wedding band, one of the benefits of booking acoustic music is that we can more easily work with a sound limiter!

How Much Space Is There On Stage/In The Performing Area?

Believe it or not, I once arrived at a venue with my five piece party band The Cheers where we had been allocated a space of c. 1.5 by 1m (our drummer and his kit may have just about fit inside this space!). Wedding bands often have a lot of equipment including their PA system and whilst we won’t demand a huge space, it’s not possible to fit a plane inside a bay designed for a car. Of course, the metaphor is a little OTT but I’m sure it drives home the point of what I’m saying. Therefore, it’s always worth asking your wedding venue and your wedding band about the stage/ performing space availability and requirements. For ourselves, we'd only require c. 3m across by 2.5m depth for our trio. We’ll always gladly adapt within’ reason and where possible.

How Much Time Does The Band Require To Set Up?

We understand that your wedding day may be on a tight schedule. Therefore, the timing of the set up and speed of the turn around for the different aspects of your big day are important to get right for all involved. Similarly to the last point, bands often have a lot of equipment and therefore, this should be considered when allocating the amount of time the musicians have to load-in (and also whether loading in the equipment is direct or, if it involves stairs/ lifts/ is on the other side of the venue), set up and sound check. For example, if you’ve booked a live band for the evening but there’s little-to-no-time for them to set up during the early evening, ask if they would consider an afternoon set up. For our trio, 50 - 60 minutes is sufficient and we’re always happy to arrive early if we’re available to do so. If the evening set up time is too short, I will very often offer clients the option of one band member (myself) arriving earlier in the day, to set up the PA, with the rest of the musicians arriving in the evening. This option will be more cost effective (i.e. an early arrival fee only applies to one band member), and means that a much shorter amount time will be required to allow the rest of the musicians to set up, and for us to sound check in the evening.

I hope that this is helpful. If you have any further questions, please feel free get in contact with us here.