How to choose and book a great wedding band that’ll be a hit!

Selecting and booking your Wedding Reception Band

It will be easier if you’re getting married in the Central Belt which, for those of you from outside Scotland, means the area of highest population from Glasgow and Ayrshire in the West to Edinburgh Dundee and Perth in the East. That’s where the majority of professional wedding bands are based and you’ll notice the difference as soon as you hear them, but it goes much deeper than that!

If you’re local to your wedding venue near you might find it easy enough to get a good local band at a knock down price to play for you but even so, are they going to be reliable, sober and organised enough to ensure you and your guests have a brilliant, stress free evening. Will they have a quality PA system that sounds good, is powerful enough to be heard when everyone’s dancing and electrically safe with a PAT certificate to prove it, and will they have public liability insurance in case anything goes badly wrong?

There’s a lot of organisiation involved in getting any wedding band properly rehearsed and equipped and years of experience in not only playing and singing the songs also being able to truly entertaining you and knowing what you and your guests will enjoy.

To make sure you get the best music you’ll need to search out a real professional quality band. There are plenty about but not all of them will be easy to find, available on your date and willing to travel to you venue, particularly if you’ve picked a romantic venue way off the beaten track.

Booking your band direct or through a music agent?

With the internet now in everyone’s home it’s fairly easy, if a bit time-consuming, to search for ceilidh bands in the general area of your venue yourself and come up with a good selection to choose from. When you find the band that suits you, your venue and your wedding budget, be sure you get a proper written contract stating date, time, location, fee and whatever conditions you’ve agreed with them. We’ve seen so many cases of couples let down by a band who they thought they had booked a year or so before only to find that the musicians had taken another booking and there was no written agreement in place to prove who came first. Most bands are honest, hard working musicians who love to share their culture, skills and time yet may not be as organised as you would wish and this is where finding an efficient (and ethical) booking agent makes sense.

There are plenty of music booking agencies who can help you find a ceilidh band quickly and provide you with a legally binding contract as well as a certain level of back up if things go wrong for any reason, they can also offer you insider advice by phone or email but remember, it’s seldom impartial advice, agents can sometimes have particular bands that they favour for a variety of reasons, not always the same reasons for which you would choose your band. Hopefully the majority of agents do what they do because they love music and make their living by matching clients with suitable acts so that everyone is happy and saving you a lot of time and possibly a few heartaches on the way.

Start your band hunt early

Either way start your band hunt early and make a firm booking as soon as you’ve made your mind up, remember, the better bands of all genres almost always get booked up more than 12 months ahead. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for so look out for reviews such as “…very professional, accomplished musicians who brought variety and fun and called the dances very kindly and patiently for those who were new to the dances or had just forgotten!” And “… everyone commented on how great the band was! A great variety of music catering for all ages, anyone looking to hire a band would be lucky to have you. Thanks to all of you for a fantastic night.”

Plan, research, decide and act, you’ll be so happy and relieved when you have this key element of your wedding planning settled.

musically yours,

…. Dee