Your Wedding Music
Booking your wedding music is one of the most fun tasks in your wedding planning. It is the soundtrack of your wedding and the backing music to your first dance! A big deal! So it’s important to get this right. Here is a quick 4-step guide to power through this task quickly and happily, whether you are booking a band or DJ.
1. Think about the style
The best place to start with all vendor bookings is your wedding theme. The same is true for booking your wedding music. If you don’t have a wedding theme yet, we would suggest coming up with one as soon as you can as it makes your life a whole lot easier. Once you have decided on your theme, try to base your music around this. Certain themes are naturally suited to certain genres. E.g. a 70s themed wedding would be well suited to a disco/funk band, whereas a rock n’ roll wedding would be best suited to a……erm……90s pop band(obviously). Of course, it’s important to make sure you like the genre yourself. Looking at your theme will at least give you a starting point.
2. Do the research
The next step is the research phase. The best place to begin your search is on wedding directories such as Little Book for Brides or music-specific-directories such as Hireaband. An alternative approach is to use a site like Soundcloud. Most bands/artists on Soundcloud won’t promote themselves as a wedding band but you can still reach out to them and ask if they would be interested. This is a good choice if you want something a little bit more unusual.
3. Initial enquiry
Depending on how tight a deadline you have, you can either contact bands individually based on your preference or you can build a small list of potential bands and contact them all at once. Reach out with a simple email to check their availability on your wedding date, how much they charge and what their service includes(this is a good point to ask if you have any specific requests e.g. can they play a certain song). This is a casual enquiry so don’t feel obliged to book after this first email.
4. Book
Once you have found a band/artist/DJ that you are happy with(you should be happy with the music and the people), it’s time to confirm the booking. Confirm in writing, ask for any contracts that they provide and pay the initial deposit to confirm the booking. You have just booked your wedding music. Nice!