Wedding church music - cost

Hi all,

Pricing music for a wedding, and not really sure what is a good price and what isn't.. (perhaps its the Northern thing of having a fear of being ripped off and not knowing it!)
We're being quoted;
€650 for singer + piano or harp
€950 for singer + string trio
€1100 for singer + string quartet.
Seems punchy for a couple of hours work, or is this (sadly) the going rate?

Cheers

C

I got married last year in Killiney and we used the services of a lady with a guitar. she was brilliant, very pure voice, think it cost about €150. I will find and post her details if you are interested.

Got married in 2006 and paid 200 for organist and 200 for singer

crumble said:

Hi all,

Pricing music for a wedding, and not really sure what is a good price and what isn't.. (perhaps its the Northern thing of having a fear of being ripped off and not knowing it!)
We're being quoted;
€650 for singer + piano or harp
€950 for singer + string trio
€1100 for singer + string quartet.
Seems punchy for a couple of hours work, or is this (sadly) the going rate?

Cheers

C

Click to expand...

Are you serious. Who is singing U2. Thats crazy. Sure a decent band would be paid about €1,000 for a nights gig. Shop around you will get a much cheaper (but by no means lesser) gig then the above.

I assume this is for the ceremony rather than the reception? Seems a little high, but not outrageous. Would also depend on location and time of year and time of week.

Remember this includes
- advice on selection of music / consultation time
- time to attend ceremony (and some form of rehearsal either immediately before the service or at full wedding rehearsal)
- transport costs and time to and from venue
- overheads such as sheet music, maintenance of instruments, dealing with enquiries that don't turn into bookings, etc.
- commission if you are booking through an agent / wedding planner (also somebody is spending time selecting and coordinating the musicians as it's rare that a group would have the same people for every gig)
- tax

I'm occassionally asked to perform and / or organise musicians for funerals and weddings for friends or relatives and always try to avoid it due to the organisational and logistical hassle involved. It's not worth it for the sort of money people expect to pay for "less than two hours on the day".

Where are you located?
My sister got married recently and we had the most fantastic singer at a much more reasonable rate than above.
PM me if you are interested in the details!

MugsGame said:

Remember this includes
- advice on selection of music / consultation time
- time to attend ceremony (and some form of rehearsal either immediately before the service or at full wedding rehearsal)
- transport costs and time to and from venue
- overheads such as sheet music, maintenance of instruments, dealing with enquiries that don't turn into bookings, etc.
- commission if you are booking through an agent / wedding planner (also somebody is spending time selecting and coordinating the musicians as it's rare that a group would have the same people for every gig)
- tax

Click to expand...

We chose our own music and had a 10 minute meeting after mass one sunday we our musicians. And they didn't attend any rehearsal as they didnt need to as they had a copy of booklet and were professionals

it might be only an hour but who has a job for the other few hours that day?
string quartets range from 300 - 600 from when i was looking and a singer was 200. When you factor in travel expenses and the day's work it usually costs the musician 4+ singer for 1100 - 200 day + petrol for 5 is not really scandalous.

We chose our own music

Click to expand...

What did you choose it from? Were the musicians familiar with all the pieces and did they already have sheet music? Fair enough if yes in your case, but in many cases couples request obscure or inappropriate pieces which take time either to source and learn or to convince the couple to replace.

And they didn't attend any rehearsal

Click to expand...

In which case they probably did some rehearsal in their own time.

There is also the opportunity cost pennypitstop raises of being pretty much unavailable for other work on that day (many "full-time" musicians have casual work elsewhere.). And presumably even if the service is only an hour (and starts on time!) the couple would expect musicians to turn up early and also not run off immediately afterwards.

we requested a very obscure piece of music pokarekare ana a maori love song and the organist already new the music because an irish song "a mhuire mháthair" uses the same air. But we gave a cd to the cantor and the written words and she learned it and sang it beautifully. We got married on a monday so they were glad of the work.

Hi, I hope this isn't considered as a breach of posting guidelines, it's certainly not my intention and I apologise if I'm out of line.

I play in a band and we don't believe in overcharging people who are hard pressed to pay for their wedding day. I'm just appalled at some of the prices I've seen here. We basically do a deal which includes the church, band and DJ. Feel free to PM me if anyone wants to contact us.