Choosing Your Wedding Reception Music

Choosing the best wedding reception music and booking musicians can be one of the biggest decisions in your wedding planning as there are so many things to consider.

A balancing act

Your top priority should be to ensure that, on the day, you and your guests will be able to relax and enjoy yourselves, knowing all the work and preparation is over and that you can trust the band to look after their audience, their performance and your evening without any more supervision.

You’ll want to have music that you and your spouse enjoy, of course, but there are also your guests to consider. As often as not there will be of a wide span of ages with different tastes, energy levels and attention spans, yet you’ll want them all to have a spectacular and enjoyable evening.

Most of the people you invite will be from the bride’s and groom’s families as well as colleagues, friends and acquaintances, most of whom wont know one another, so you’ll have to find ways to get them to mix as soon as possible. So how do you achieve that?

When you hire a band you’ll want to know that they’ll be able cover all these requirements as well as being professionals who can entertain everyone while organising themselves and their audience without even seeming to do so.

Hopefully you’ll already have a wedding budget to keep track of what you can spend and, since booking bands can be expensive, it’s best to be clear approximately what you can get for your money so I’ve put in some price indicators for each type of act.

Ceilidh or Barndance

The best value you’ll get, which will also please a wide range of ages, will almost certainly be a ceilidh band (sometimes called caley, ceili, celidh or even a barndance band). A Ceilidh is great for including all age groups and there’s nothing like it as an ice-breaker to bring together people who’ve never met before. Playing traditional Ceilidh and Celtic music properly is very technical and musicians have to specialise to achieve and maintain a good professional standard so don’t ask them to play pop covers as well, the instruments and techniques don’t translate well.

If you feel you have to have pop music as well as ceilidh a popular solution is to find a ceilidh band that offer an integrated disco in the price. If you find a band who says they play both ceilidh and covers well, be very sure you agree with them! Very few can pull off the transition without being disappointing on one or both sides of the coin.

You should be able to get a good local Ceilidh trio from as little as £500 though for a professional outfit who can guarantee you a quality, fun wedding ceilidh you should expect to pay at least £600 for trio and around £800 for a four-piece. A trio is fine for up to 70 guests but for more than that I usually recommend a four-piece

Covers Band

If you love your pop music there’s nothing like a fully live band to can give you every song you love and that’s quite accessible for between £850 and £1350 or to really push the boat out you can go for a big ten or more piece outfit for £3,000 or so. If these prices would stretch your budget too much you can still get a sound that’s almost as big from a high-tech or pop duo where you have two musicians singing and playing live but with the rest of the backing pre-recorded and they’ll be available from about £500 to £750.

Scottish Band

In Scotland most people will ask their covers band for at least a few traditional dances and many these function bands will be happy to provide 30 – 45 minutes of called ceilidh dancing. Another thing to note about a Scottish band is that they will usually give you continuous music from about 8pm until midnight playing two live music sets of about 90 to 100 minutes each with a break between during which they put on CDs. In England, by contrast, many bands will only play two 40 – 45 minute sets during the evening. Maybe Scottish partygoers have a greater appetite for dancing than their cousins across the border!

Tribute Band

If your tastes are very specific and you’re really set on one artist or band’s music you will find that there is probably a tribute band that specialises in covering that music as accurately as they can; so it’s quite possible to get Abba, the Beatles, the Eagles, Eric Clapton or even AC/DC to play for your reception but, if they’re any good, a tribute band will tend to cost considerably more than an equivalent general covers band.

Jazz Band

Another option would be a Jazz band. There are great jazz duos, two guitars for example, who give you a very full sound, plenty of dynamism and at a very attractive price. The “classic” Jazz combination of vocalist and pianist is superb for cocktail music which could be just right for a laid back, intimate evening but, if you want dancing and more “drive” you’ll need to add drums and upright bass, even better get sax or trumpet to give that strong melody line and you’ve got a powerful combo. That’s now 5 highly skilled musicians and they can cost you up to £5,000 if you go for the best around. However, there are plenty of jazz combos available relatively locally so you can sometimes find a five-piece for as little as £650. Shop around and use your ears!

One point about jazz bands is that many of them expect to play just two 45 minute sets in an evening rather give you continuous music from the end of your wedding breakfast till you drop. Be sure to ask how long they play and exactly what music they offer since most jazz bands just don’t play pop covers and, if they do, it certainly won’t be the way you’re used to hearing them!

See more about selecting and booking your band

It’s your party music

It’s your party and there are plenty of choices out there. Decide the type of music you want and find the band that seems to offer the best version of that within your budget and don’t be afraid to ask them if they sing the songs you like. Better to find out and go for anther band before anything is signed than feel trapped when it’s too late to decide again.

Have fun, research well and book early, the better bands of all persuasions are often snapped up more than a year in advance.

musically yours,

…. Dee