Members sventvkg Posted February 11, 2015 Members Share Posted February 11, 2015 OK man it's time! I was wondering if you would give me a general guideline of what to do to start up my wedding band? I have ideas based on friends and my last band but since you have a lot of experience in this sphere I hope you'll share as well. First I'll tell you that I have a songlist and am finalizing the lineup. We have gear, BG tracks etc etc...Website, killer video, Gigmasters, Wedding Wire and The Knot are for certain. What am I missing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted February 11, 2015 Members Share Posted February 11, 2015 Try to get in with the top venues and wedding coordinators. We get a lot of gigs due to recommendations from these sources. A lot of that might not come until you work with them once, but it doesn't hurt to put in the work. remember that you're competing with DJs many times, the best of whom are very good at what they do and will do it for less. So make sure you don't provide any fewer services than what the best DJs do: MCing duties; play special-dance songs; cocktail hour music, etc. These people have money and are willing to pay $3-4K more for a live band than they would a DJ, just make sure you're giving them their money's worth. Youll get get a feel for how the songlist should go the more gigs you do --- and I know youve already played a lot of weddings with another band and it seems you already have your tracks done but I've found that the format that works best for us is a older, familiar dance tunes (re: disco) up front, Top 40 and classic hip-hop stuff in the middle and end with the 80s Classic rockers. Also, shorter is better. Most of our setlist is medleys and mashups these days where we're only playing a couple of minutes of each tune. We might run through 50 songs in 2 hours. People's attention spans are short and you're working with crowds that have a wide variety of tastes. Not everyone is going to like every song you do and they aren't necessarily going to sit through 5 minutes of a song they don't like. Also, unlike a DJ, you don't really have the ability to fade out of a song that isn't working and try something else on the fly. At any given time, there are always a couple of current hits that kill with the crowd that, because they are almost certainly going to have a short shelf life, can seem like more trouble than they are worth to work up, but it's a good idea to have them. They'll pack the floor and you'll almost certainly get requests for them. Sure, you can always MP3 them during the breaks, but you're not there to be the DJ they could have hired for less. Right now those songs seem to be "Uptown Funk" , "All About That Bass" and "Shake It Off". Later this year they'll be something else. Good news is these songs are almost always dirt-simple and you can probably just work them up and eschew using tracks for a couple of songs a show. thats stuff that works for us and, of course, YMMV and there's more than one way to skin a cat and all that. But it HAS come to us through years of trial and error, for whatever that is worth. good luck, and if I think of anything else I'll let you know. And if you have any specific questions, ask away! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted February 11, 2015 Members Share Posted February 11, 2015 Also, keep the setlist light and upbeat. These people are there to have a good time and celebrate. Rockers with slodgy beats or lyrics that might kill in another setting are not what these people want to hear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted February 12, 2015 Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 You can check out our website (see signature) for what we provide and the songs we do. We do 20 or so weddings a year, which is about 1/2 our gigs. They are very rewarding as people really appreciate you, but you have to understand you're higher up on the food chain as far what will be expected of you. You need bandmates that understand 2-4X the money per hour versus a bar band comes with a price of being on site longer, waiting around for hours before playing, and maintaining a professional appearance and attitude the entire time. Some random thoughts - WIth 54 bookings and many others I'm sure seeing us and booking directly, Gigmasters has been good for us over the years. - https://www.gigmasters.com/cover-band/next-exit . It's reasonably priced per year for the exposure and the 5% booking fee is more than fair. I love the "pay for performance" aspect of the marketing. They also have sister sites that you'll be listed with. - The Knot was a total waste of time in our case. We were the only band on there when we advertised and still only managed 1 INQUIRY (that's right, not even a booking, just an inquiry) in 6 months. It's very expensive too at around 6X the cost of Gigmasters just to be listed. - Gig Salad has a free listing available, but very low traffic and very stupid booking practices that make it impossible to book with them. - Gig Mamma is a waste. I'm not sure I've gotten a single inquiry - Wedding Wire has free listing too that's worth about what you pay for it. - If you're a wedding band you have to be a total sell out as far as what you play and pack your setlist with as much "all ages" music as you can, but have some current hits in there too - Decide if you're going to "play what you play" or cater to special requests. In our case, with rare exception, we DO NOT learn songs we'll just be playing once then tossing. It's just not worth our time considering our price point and we tell people that. There are bands that will learn whatever you want, but they will, and should, charge you 2X what we do as they'll be putting in a significant amount more work. We do offer DJing of special songs and breaks and that works for people most of the time. - IMO, you need a "leader". Focusing on weddings means a lot more planning, logistics, and just general time spent doing websites, contracts, negotiating, working with the client, etc. One person directing this activity is likely preferable. For us, I do everything except cashing the checks. Those are sent to the drummer. This year we're actually going to use our LLC for the first time, and get insurance, which some venues mandate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted February 12, 2015 Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 Oh, important to understand too that it could be tougher getting gigs for the 5 months of the year that's not wedding season! Nov - Apr are spotty with Dec - Mar lucky to bring 2-3 weddings total. We are lucky to have a few bars that will book us just in the winter, but most don't work that way. We kept our following at these few places because we've been playing them for a long time, in one case nearly 15 yrs. You'll likely lose your following if you're out of the club scene entirely for 6 months at a time as we are. We still manage to scrounge gigs up during the off season but it's much harder than it used to be when we were only booking bars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted February 12, 2015 Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 All really good stuff I agree with Abzurd. Only thing I'd add is that I wouldn't be so quick to sell Wedding Wire short. We pay for a featured listing, and it's not cheap---especially since we pay to be in 4 markets at once---but we DO get gigs from it. More than we probably even know since they are not a booking site like Gigmasters and once people click on the link to the band website and contact us the question of "so where did you first hear of the band" often just gets met with "I dunno....I found you on the web...." Also they are linked up with other major wedding sites like Martha Stewart and such. They aren't cheap so I'm not going to say it's a must for anyone, but certainly looking into. In my view, even a couple of bookings a year we wouldn't have gotten otherwise makes it worth the money spent. I agree, though, that other than Gigmasters, GigSalad and the rest are pretty much garbage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sventvkg Posted February 12, 2015 Author Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 I'm glad you mentioned Weddinf Wire because I didn't see it mentioned in Abzurds post along with the other places. My former bandleader got a lot of work from wedding wire and told me it's deathly worth it. I'm going To start with Wedding Wire and Gigmasters. Oh, can I pay monthly fr those or do I have to come up with a chunk of $$ all at once? GREAT info guys thanks! I've got the music aspect and the gig logistic aspect down but there's just some business details about the best way to spend my money and get started again from you guys so thanks:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members trevcda Posted February 12, 2015 Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 A few things I can think of off the top of my head- If you haven't already, prepare to be dressed a lot better than your typical bar band. While the "we play what we play" thing may work out okay, unless you're playing back yard weddings and VFW receptions, you're going to want to step it up on the outfit side of things. A suit and several dress shirts, ties and appropriate shoes is a good start. Several times a year we play black tie weddings and other events and build in the additional cost for renting for each member. I own several tuxes and get to pocket most of that rental fee or at least whatever doesn't go to dry cleaning. We run ourselves as a value added band. We can add additional players such as a horn section or a harpist, bag piper or other soloist for ceremony music. We can also provide an additional system for the ceremony with wireless lavs and even a quiet generator for remote locations. We can provide architectural lighting. We can assist in much more than just the reception. Which brings me to... Wedding coordinators. I can feel David shudder from here at the mention of those two words! The wedding coordinator can be your best friend or your worst enemy, Even if you're only going to be reception entertainment, getting to know him/her early in the game is a really good idea. As the people with the microphone, you will likely be emceeing the garter toss, bouquet toss, dollar dance and whatever else they come up with. I try be involved in the itinerary design and make sure that realistic time frames that affect our schedule are considered. Sometimes it ends micromanaged down to the minute and sometimes it's so stupidly vague that no one could plan around it. Either way, it's gonna be wrong and you have to be prepared to be flexible enough to be sure that everything happens. Just be sure to establish who you go-to person is well ahead of time. It could be a wedding coordinator, it could be "mom" (another shudder) or it could be the photographer who knows when everything needs to happen. Whenever humanely possible advance the gig with the wedding party present and, if needed, attend the rehearsal. You may know the venue and know that they have a nice big stage with plenty of power and lots of house lighting on the stage. What you may not know is that "The wedding party will be seated on the stage and see that swinging door going into the kitchen? That's where you guys are setting up." Or "We not in the big room. There's an intimate little space down stairs and, by the way, there is no elevator so you guys are going to have to go down three flights of stairs with your equipment. They will go ape {censored} if one of their own gets up and sings with the band. If there is an iota of talent in the wedding party, you can shift a party into high gear quickly by inviting them up for a song or two. Sometimes it's total train wreck. Sometimes you'll be floored. Sometimes it's somebody famous. It doesn't matter what it is, if you can keep the crowd and the energy up after their time, that crowd is yours! Lastly, be prepared for absolutely anything. One of my favorite memories as a wedding band occurred a few years ago at a very remote and beautiful resort on a lake out in the woods in the late winter. They rented out the entire resort and provide rooms for everyone as well as for the band. There's at least four feet of snow on the ground and this place is lit up like a Thomas Kincaide painting. It's kind of an upscale cowboy themed event. They have the ceremony and a very nice served dinner without incident. We kick off shortly after and get about half way through the first set and "click!" the power goes out. A tree fell on a line somewhere and it's not coming back until morning. The resort starts lighting candles and they've got a generator to keep the bar working so the party's not over, but we're dead in the water with my generator three and half hours away. But we love to jam in the rooms so I had an acoustic bass, there's piano over there, we have horns and acoustic guitar and the drummer brought a Djembe. We gather ourselves and gather under the only electric overhead bulb over the dance floor working off the resorts generator and start playing and singing a little until all the guests realize what's going on and settle in around us. We get through all the father/daughter, mother/son and first dances with everyone quietly watching by candle light all around us. When we finish those, one of the guys yells "Let's do it!" and we proceed to sing our guts out unplugged for about next two hours until none of can even speak. Everyone was so appreciative and we still play events for that family who still bring up that wedding. The point is, I guess, you are part of what makes that evening special for that group. And you get to do it several times a year. What am I, writing a book?!! Sorry, I just got on a bit of a run there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sventvkg Posted February 12, 2015 Author Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 I've played a lot of weddings....Never ran my own wedding band...I was just asking about the business end of things, starting a business, getting the gigs, marketing etc. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted February 12, 2015 Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 Yes, I believe you can pay monthly. Also, don't be afraid to try and negotiate with the people at Wedding Wire. Especially if you're going to be in more than one market. At one point we complained about the fee and the girl through in extra months and a free listing in another market and such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted February 12, 2015 Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 Wedding coordinators. I can feel David shudder from here at the mention of those two words! The wedding coordinator can be your best friend or your worst enemy, Even if you're only going to be reception entertainment, getting to know him/her early in the game is a really good idea. As the people with the microphone, you will likely be emceeing the garter toss, bouquet toss, dollar dance and whatever else they come up with. I try be involved in the itinerary design and make sure that realistic time frames that affect our schedule are considered. Sometimes it ends micromanaged down to the minute and sometimes it's so stupidly vague that no one could plan around it. Either way, it's gonna be wrong and you have to be prepared to be flexible enough to be sure that everything happens. Just be sure to establish who you go-to person is well ahead of time. It could be a wedding coordinator, it could be "mom" (another shudder) or it could be the photographer who knows when everything needs to happen. LOL...usually our relationship with the wedding coordinators are really good. We approach it as a "we're on the same side here" and realizing the wedding party probably has some unrealistic expectations. They also are usually thrilled to find out we've done this a bunch and they don't really need to worry about stuff on our end. Just give us the cues of when to do what and we'll make it happen. If necessary, we try to fit them around our schedule. We've done this a lot and know how these things flow best. If I see a bunch of stuff on the schedule that looks like it's going to upset the flow of events, we'll try to get them to adjust things accordingly. You're right that they often try to micro-manage stuff to a degree that makes no sense. Nothing ever goes to schedule. I usually just try to sit the co-ordinator down and let her know that if she just lets the events flow naturally, everything will go much better. Everything will happen eventually. And if not every sparkler gets put into every cupcake on time, nobody is going to care. They just want to have a fun day. We all have the same goal here: to make the event as big a success as possible All your advice was good stuff I agree with 100%. Sean probably knows most of what we're telling him, but it doesn't hurt to have this thread up for others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members trevcda Posted February 12, 2015 Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 Oops! I didn't realize that. Oh well hopefully my post will be helpful to someone who comes across this post later! As far as a business advice goes, don't just give it away because you're there. Everything has a value and if they have rent it elsewhere it will probably cost more. You don't need a four page itemized list, but if it's not part of your normal system and it has to be procured, charge for it. And watch your expenses. They can add up quickly when you're not looking. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sventvkg Posted February 12, 2015 Author Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 Yea it's a great informative post no matter, thanks! Hopefully google will archive it if we go DARK here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted February 12, 2015 Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 All really good stuff I agree with Abzurd. Only thing I'd add is that I wouldn't be so quick to sell Wedding Wire short. We pay for a featured listing, and it's not cheap---especially since we pay to be in 4 markets at once---but we DO get gigs from it. More than we probably even know since they are not a booking site like Gigmasters and once people click on the link to the band website and contact us the question of "so where did you first hear of the band" often just gets met with "I dunno....I found you on the web...." Also they are linked up with other major wedding sites like Martha Stewart and such. They aren't cheap so I'm not going to say it's a must for anyone, but certainly looking into. In my view, even a couple of bookings a year we wouldn't have gotten otherwise makes it worth the money spent. I agree, though, that other than Gigmasters, GigSalad and the rest are pretty much garbage. I'll have to consider Wedding Wire again. The free listing does nothing for us, but maybe the paid listing would be good. I've just been gun shy on the expensive advertising after The Knot was such a fail. We do have 6 reviews on Wedding wire that have just "shown up" over the years, so that's helpful I guess - http://www.weddingwire.com/reviews/n...1430e52e5.html Other things I thought of - We generally do 1/3 up front and the balance due 2 weeks prior - We always get meals as we're "on site" for roughly 9 hours per gig (2 hrs setup-sound check-cleanup, 6 hr reception which includes 3 hours of us playing plus djing, emceeing, toasts, special dances, etc, 1 hour tear down) - You'll need a decent "emcee" person as we've emceed every wedding we've ever done. It's always expected. - As mentioned earlier in the thread, clothing options will be important. You'll want a formal and a business casual option minimum. If outdoors a "polo shirt" option is nice too as it can be darn hot playing in a tent in July. For formal consider just doing a white dress shirt, vest, and black pants. It looks good and much easier and cooler to play in than a tux or suit. - Obviously a contract is key - HERE'S a sample of ours. - The week of the gig is when you advance it with the venue. Chances are they aren't going to have the few things you ask for (power brought to the performance area, place to store gear, and place for the band to hang out is all we ask for) but if you try and advance it any earlier than that you can be SURE they'll forget as these venues have receptions every week so calling them a month ahead is pointless. - We don't charge enough to attend rehearsals or set up the day before, or earlier and then come back. - It's important to know if the ceremony is at the same venue as the reception, and if so, if you're supposed to be setup prior to the reception. This affects pricing as you'll have to be there an hour or more earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted February 12, 2015 Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 In addition to a contract we send out a "Wedding Planner" that is used to fill in all the details of the event. I can anyone who wants one a copy of that. Just IM me with an email address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted February 12, 2015 Members Share Posted February 12, 2015 In addition to a contract we send out a "Wedding Planner" that is used to fill in all the details of the event. I can anyone who wants one a copy of that. Just IM me with an email address. We do this as well via a Google Doc that's shared with the client. I get emailed when they make changes and sometimes I'll end up on a call with the client and go over it with them, making live changes they can see as I edit. Then I print and bring 3 copies to the wedding. One usually goes to the photographer, and oddly, often the wedding coordinators don't have the same schedule or one at all. There are also some "tips" in the margins of the sheet that helps them plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted February 13, 2015 Members Share Posted February 13, 2015 One more thing. Once you get into booking "beyond bars" you have to be accessible ALL THE TIME. Case and point, I'm on vacation currently in Hawaii, but have answered several inquiries, sent out a wedding contract as well as negotiated a company picnic today that started with an inquiry when I woke up, followed by some back and forth and ending in a verbal "put us on your books" and me emailing a contract a few minutes ago... so 12 hours from first contact to waiting for the contract. If you aren't willing to live life that way, you'll miss 1/2 your good gig opportunities as most people will shoot off inquiries to 3-5 bands. You need to engage quickly. It also impresses the prospect right off the bat. Reply within an hour or so and you'll get a "wow, thanks for the quick reply"... a great way to start a relationship! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WynnD Posted February 17, 2015 Members Share Posted February 17, 2015 I've always expected that you would have to please the Mother of the Bride first. Always expected that volume would be the first thing complained about. (Might be wrong about that, but I'm always up for lower volume. Having a lot of fun with Hopscotch the Musical.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted February 17, 2015 Members Share Posted February 17, 2015 I've always expected that you would have to please the Mother of the Bride first. Always expected that volume would be the first thing complained about. (Might be wrong about that' date=' but I'm always up for lower volume. Having a lot of fun with Hopscotch the Musical.)[/quote'] I thought the same thing at first, but it's only happened once and it was with our small system with the MOB about 80 feet or so away from the FOH so there would have been no pleasing her. We ended up with the PA essentially off. We have no live amps on stage either so it was basically the blow back from the monitors. Not sure why they hired a band (or had any musical entertainment whatsoever). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted February 17, 2015 Members Share Posted February 17, 2015 Never really had any issues with volume. Not that we play really loud anyway, but never had ridiculous issues with people wanting us to be quiet. They are hiring a band for a party. They usually expect a certain amount of volume. There might be a couple of REALLY old folks at a wedding that might have an issue with the volume? But usually the volume Nazis aren't going to stay around for more than a song or two anyway. As far a bridezilla mamas go----there have been a couple of micro-manage types over the years but doesn't happen too often. The one time I recall she was also serving the wedding coordinator, so you can only imagine that would be trouble. But usually they calm down once events get going and everyone is having a good time. Had a wedding last year where they made the mistake of putting the bar in a separate room from where the band was playing.*So, for the first set, guess where everyone wanted to hang out? The mother of somebody, who had already spent too much time at the bar herself, comes up to us during the break screaming that we're playing "all the wrong songs" and "don't play any more of that disco sh*t". "Why did you guys play YMCA?? I specifically told you not to play YMCA!!" "I hate f'ing YMCA!" (We didn't play YMCA. We haven't played YMCA for anyone in about 5 years....) So we give her a bunch of "yes ma'am" and other bla-bla to calm her down when we go on for the 2nd set the dance floor is popping. She's still rushing the stage and yelling at us to stop playing every song she doesn't personally like, but by the end of the night her husband is falling over himself apologizing for her and gives us a very nice bonus check which, I'm pretty sure, was part of his apology. *(A good recommendation is that if you end up having any say over this with the planner of ANY private event, make sure they have at least one bar in the dancing area. Sometimes inexperienced planners think it sounds good to put the bar away from where people are dancing. No. You want to have it all going on in the same location.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted February 18, 2015 Members Share Posted February 18, 2015 Ditto to the bar comment. It's very important to have a bar, and preferably THE or ALL bars, in the room with the band. I tell brides this early on. If you don't you get people running into the room for a song, and generally the last half of the song, then running back out and to the bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.