Your fiancé proposes – you say “yes”. And soon afterward, you get all excited about planning your wedding and saying ‘yes’ to a bunch of other decisions. Maybe you’re dreaming rather than thinking logistically, perhaps putting the cart before the horse. You’re dreaming of your walk down the aisle, a live musician setting a fairytale mood, your guests are crying. Your next thought is, oh shoot, I need to hire a musician before I can’t get the one I want.
In this post, I will guide you through what a musician is looking for when being booked for a wedding, so that you know realistically what you need to have done before booking them, as well as how far in advance you need to book them.
1. Book your venue first
Your venue is the most important building block of your wedding day. It is the canvas upon which your story is painted. It is going to be in all of your pictures. It is going to be one of your biggest expenses. Not only that, but venues have particular vendors they work with, especially for catering and bartending. Some venues even require that you hire a planner first. The point is that every venue is different, and if you have certain must-haves, it needs to align with what your venue can provide.
Lastly, locking in your venue will seal in your date. This is of importance to ALL of your vendors, especially your entertainment. After all, if you don’t have a venue yet, you don’t really have a date yet, and your musician or DJ won’t know if they are available for your date.
Any time after securing your venue, you may start contacting entertainers. We’ll get into exactly when in just a little bit.
2. List your priorities
You and your fiancé need to decide what is most important to you. Are you concerned about a great photographer so you can capture this day in a certain way and relive it just as you experienced it? Are you concerned about ‘The One’ dress? Is a string quartet a must-have?
All couples value these things the most:
- Their experience
- Their time
- Their money
Their experience – they care most that their wedding feels special and unique, that it tells a story. They care that their guests are impressed, engaged, and happy. They want the whole day to be happy and memorable. And they will forego some things to achieve that end, including their time and money.
Their time – they care most about checking things off the list, reducing stress and extra time that may be involved. Life is already busy, and planning a wedding can sometimes feel like another part-time job. These couples want their vendors to ‘figure it out’, because they aren’t that picky or don’t really know what their guests will like. They don’t care as much about the experience – maybe they just can’t wait to get married – and don’t care if they have to spend a little extra to put the planning in someone else’s hands.
Their money – they care most about saving money everywhere they can – after all, most people pay for their own weddings, and their money needs to help them start their life together. These couples will take extra time to shop around for the cheapest vendor, even if it means hiring someone with less experience and taking the risk that it may not turn out the greatest.
Which one are you?
If you value time and money, a budget DJ is usually the way to go. But it’s usually indicative that entertainment is not a high priority, and your music experience will be forgettable. Or perhaps you know someone who plays an instrument, and they don’t know what to charge so they charge $100. But you take that risk that they mess up.
If you value the experience, maybe you take a bit extra time to figure out exactly the right vendors, even if they are more expensive. For you, a live band or musician is the way to go. Some of them can either save you time, or you’ll spend more time telling them what to play. It really depends on the group…you’ll have to ask that question in your inquiries.
The problem is that most couples don’t prioritize the entertainment.
Did you know that almost all couples wished they could have spent more on their entertainment, and that 78% of couples wished they had made entertainment their highest priority? This tells me there is a lot of post-wedding regret.
People hire a great, reputable DJ, but that means their focus was on the reception – a high priority on a great celebration but not highlighting any of the romantic moments or storytelling that your ceremony needs. Most people think ‘wedding music’ refers to the reception, but that’s not where the memories are made. Listen folks, you have to get married first. Besides, most DJs aren’t trying to tell your story at the reception – they are reading the crowd and appealing to their reaction.
81% of wedding guests say what they remember most about a wedding is the entertainment. Sure, the food was good, but in a year they won’t remember what they ate. No, what sticks in people’s minds is a good story. And when you tell your story through music at a wedding, it will spark that memory every time they hear that song. Not only that, but if you hire live music, it makes that moment even more special and authentic, and people will remember that guitar player they heard, that beautiful voice that moved them to their core.
What most couples forget is that music is a part of the entire wedding from start to finish. The dress, officiant, and flowers shine at the beginning. The cocktails are in the middle and reception. Your cake, DJ, and dinner rule the reception. But music is all throughout. Without music, those important moments become awkward. Prerecorded music is good…sometimes. But live music is great in all situations. Plus the visual aspect of someone skillfully playing an instrument, rather than someone standing behind a table working a DJ controller.
All this to say, find your priorities, and hire accordingly.
3. Hire your entertainment
A DJ’s job before the wedding is easy. But this doesn’t mean you can hire them a month out from your wedding. If you do that, expect to get someone with very little experience. In fact, the more expensive a DJ is, the further in advance you need to book them. If they charge a lot, it means they have tons of experience. They have tons of bells and whistles, and they weren’t able to invest in that by sitting on their thumbs.
Yes, the DJ market is saturated. However, weddings happen every weekend and they can’t possibly be everywhere at once. According to the Wedding Report, 95% of all couples hire a DJ, so they are always busy. Chances are if you want to hire a good DJ, you need to lock them in early.
Musicians, however, are a different story. Only about 16% of all couples hire a soloist or ensemble. Getting a live musician on your date is usually not the hard part – it’s getting the right one that is the trick. Maybe you want a pianist, or a guitarist, or a saxophonist…or perhaps just a singer to sing along to a track. If you have a particular interest, you should find the right one and lock them in early to ensure you get what you want.
Most couples book their musicians 5-6 months out. Logistically, this isn’t a problem, as I’ll cover in just a bit. But if you have a particular feel you are going for, it should not be one of your last hires. If you are prioritizing live music, it should be your next booking after securing your venue. The reason is you’ll have a lot of other decisions to make the closer to your wedding you get, and picking songs might feel overwhelming.
P.S. Use your venue’s preferred vendor list for reputable recommendations. Although most venues allow you to hire your own vendors, this list means they’ve worked there before and they are recommended.
EDIT: it is worth mentioning that if you want the best of both worlds, hire your musician first. Your DJ wants to upsell you to cover your entire wedding. This is a mistake! You need to check that your musician can cover the sound system on their own without an up-charge. Your DJ will insist they run sound for your ceremony anyways, making it sound like it’s necessary when really they are trying not to lose their projected income – they are used to getting the whole job. You do NOT want or need to pay 2 vendors to do 1 job.
The right musician is standalone and can provide their own sound system. Jake’s FretWorks is designed to replace your DJ for those crucial moments during ceremony and cocktail hour, when live music matters most.
Don’t make the mistake of hiring your DJ for your whole wedding, then trying to fit your musician into that picture. You may not be able to backpedal and tell your DJ they are not needed for those services. Figure out what you want covered in live music, then your DJ can fill in the other gaps. It does not work the other way around.
4. Plan your music
Logistically, we would only ask for a minimum of about 3 months notice prior to your wedding. In that first month, we would be scheduling your music planning session to talk through your timeline and how many songs you need in each place. We would also be scheduling a visit to your venue to see what our electrical and sound needs would be.
At Jake’s FretWorks, we ask our clients to have their final timeline and custom songs submitted 8 weeks before their wedding. This gives us time to learn and practice those songs. We expect our clients to make any revisions to their setlist before we lock in all songs 4 weeks before their wedding. After that, any changes can and should be charged extra to compensate for any music, tracks, and time that may take.
My suggestion, whether you go with a DJ or a musician, is not to plan too early, as this may lead to feeling a disconnect to certain songs by the time the wedding rolls around. The logistical side of me says it’s never too early to plan, because that gives me something concrete to focus on practicing. And for custom songs that may not be on your musician’s repertoire, this is great. You most likely won’t lose connection with songs that are meaningful to your relationship. But make sure to use your planning session not necessarily to fill in your timeline but to convey every idea you have so your musician can try to incorporate it into your big day.
In Conclusion
In the excitement of the beginning stages of wedding planning, don’t forget what needs to happen first. Maybe sit down with your fiancé and make a list.
- Choose your wedding date
- Choose a venue that aligns with that date
Once you have a date and a venue, a musician or DJ can be your next hire, because we are ready to get to work.
5-6 months before your wedding is a good time to be thinking about timeline and special songs, and starting to map all that out. If you’re unsure what a standard timeline looks like, consult your musician or DJ. Planning in this pocket is right between your vendor hires and crunch time, so make sure you knock out that planning. A planning session with your entertainer will ensure you have good results.
Give your entertainer enough time to acquire the music needed for your wedding. Sometimes the music most special to you is a one-off song that not everyone has in their repertoire. For musicians, make sure they know your special songs well in advance, but no later than 2 months prior to your wedding (bigger groups may require more time due to scheduling rehearsals).
The pitfalls if you wait too long:
- You don’t get the kind of entertainment you want
- The one recommended to you is unavailable (because they are highly recommended).
- You have to settle for a cheap DJ who’s only available because he’s no good.
- Not enough time to learn your special songs
- Not enough time to build a connection with your entertainer (which leads to your name getting mispronounced and your reception sounding canned and scripted)
- Not enough time to thoughtfully plan your timeline and music, and trying to make these important decisions amid crunch time
Do yourselves a favor, folks, and book your musician early. Why wait and kick it down the road?
Still need an entertainer?
Jake’s FretWorks provides affordable, quality live music and DJ services. We also provide planning to help save you time and stress, which means we have ALL your bases covered – your time, your money, and your experience.
Schedule a consult with us today to see how we can fit into your vision for your wedding.
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