Band charging €1,000 more for wedding than party

[dodo]

It seems about right and remember if they are a good band then it will be worth it, Why dont you and a few of your friends get together and pay for the band, if she has 7 goods friends it will cost 215euro, which is what the average friend would give to a good friend. Please dont have her worrying,bands are always more expensive for a wedding .But if you pay peanuts you know the rest.

Hope this is in the right place!One of my best friends is getting married next year. Hotel booked, now looking to book a band. We were all at a party in a hotel last October, band played for 3 hours. They were very entertaining, cost €500. So she rang to get a price for her wedding next year, same hotel playing for same amount of time. Well her face nearly dropped - €1500.Can anyone explain wht bands add on so much just because it's a wedding?

 

[Petal]

I have to come to the defense of the band. Usually when bands play at parties or in pubs they're booked for more than just one, so it's a kind of "bulk" price. They go there, set up the gear, play their standard set and leave. All in all that takes them around 5 hours or more (loading gear,setting up gear, soundcheck, playing, taking down and loading gear). If there's 4 or 5 in a bad, 500 euro is crap pay anyway, it's 80-100 Euro for 4-5 hours work most probably on a fri or sat night. At a wedding, the band will play what the couple wants, quite often the song for the first dance has to be rehearsed. The band has to be there much earlier as you can't set up while guests are eating, you also can't start while people are still eating and quite often that takes ages, so in the end you probably end up being at a wedding from 5 or 6 in the evening till well after midnight. You probably also have a better sound-system with you, so overall, I think musicians are underpaid. And all of that doesn't take into account the amount of money all this equippment costs. So any band charging less than 1500 are either friends, a charity or desperate in my opinion.

 

[Joe1234]

The band has to be there much earlier as you can't set up while guests are eating, you also can't start while people are still eating and quite often that takes ages, so in the end you probably end up being at a wedding from 5 or 6 in the evening till well after midnight.

At any wedding I have been at (including my own), the band did not arrive until after the meal was finished. At my wedding the band arrived at 7, set up between 7 and 8, played from 8 to 10.30, and had left by 11, as the DJ started at 11.

 

[SLS]

I had a similar issue when I got married with a dj instead of a band.
I asked them to explain the reason behind the increase, they couldn't so I simply went elsewhere.

I usually asked for a quote a private party for most of my vendors and that seemed to help with getting reasonable quotes. In the above example I got the original quote for a party and then mistakenly tried to confirm for a wedding which was when I was informed of the increase.

Other tips is to try out vendors that are not traditionally wedding related, i.e. car hire company with driver rather than wedding car, in my experience they tended to be more reasonable.

 

[car]

At any wedding I have been at (including my own), the band did not arrive until after the meal was finished. At my wedding the band arrived at 7, set up between 7 and 8, played from 8 to 10.30, and had left by 11, as the DJ started at 11.

These times are exceptions. Bands aim to be at wedding venues for 7:30ish unless otherwise indicated.
Ive played at a couple of weddings where speeches finished at 11pm but the band still had to be at the venue at 7:30. Average start would be about 9:30pm.
Some venues dictate setup times are before meals and unable to take gear down until all music is finished. Its not a 9 to 5.

I had a similar issue when I got married with a dj instead of a band.
I asked them to explain the reason behind the increase, they couldn't so I simply went elsewhere.

Theres a rate for weddings and parties. Theres a rate for pubs. Most bands have the same rate for weddings and parties. Jan/Feb would normally be booking months for bands, usually as xmas sees couples getting engaged and start to set dates for weddings and like to book early.
Bands get a lot of enquiries about the same dates for weddings hence supply and demand sees the higher rate. Petals post outlines some of the other reasons.

 

[Joe1234]

Ive played at a couple of weddings where speeches finished at 11pm but the band still had to be at the venue at 7:30. Average start would be about 9:30pm.

Glad I wasn't a guest at any of those weddings! What time would the meal have started at? Out of curiosity, when the speaches finished at 11pm, what time did u start and finish playing?

 

[car]

Glad I wasn't a guest at any of those weddings! What time would the meal have started at? Out of curiosity, when the speaches finished at 11pm, what time did u start and finish playing?

AFAIR everything went wrong, the bride was late getting to the wedding, the bus broke down bringing guests to the hotel, and the hotel was miles away from the church. Then dinner ran late, chef was having a hernia due to dinners drying out, venue had to charge couple more money to keep staff on to serve dinner late, brides take note when youre asking the driver to go round the block one more time!!
Band went on about 11:15 (fastest setup in history), finished at 1:15, DJ played til 2. When things are running late bands should work with the bride and groom to see what they what they wanted. Flexibility about time is part and parcel of the business.

 

[Joe1234]

The poor couple. Wonder how the groom felt at the church, waiting, waiting, waiting.............