Wedding Reception Bands: Tips for Booking a Wedding Band

Hiring a wedding band is sometimes one of the more challenging components of organizing a wedding because there are so many excellent musicians in the US to select from, and choosing the right style of wedding reception band may define the mood of the wedding.

Each year, we provide bands for tens of thousands of weddings in the US and other parts of North America. We have a solid understanding of couples' frustrations and challenges when starting their search for the band of their dreams because we chat with wedding couples every day.

View their live performances and expert commercial films.

Every reputable wedding band will have a video to promote themselves and show off their skills. The fact that they spent hundreds or even thousands of pounds preparing this film shows how seriously they take their work. Additionally, check to see if the group has any recordings of live performances from earlier events.

Most wedding bands will have some footage from prior events, which should show attendees on the dance floor and give you a sense of what the band sounds like while performing live. Some musicians perform at highly exclusive events, which might be difficult to record owing to privacy reasons.

Read testimonials from wedding parties the band has played for in the past.

Wedding reception bands worth their salt will have amassed a portfolio of praise and recommendations from weddings and other private parties they have played in the past. You can add another degree of protection when you book a band on a safe website since you can see if the reviews are from confirmed bookings.

Make sure your wedding venue has enough room for your wedding band.

Make sure your venue has enough space for the band to perform if you want to book a big soul or Motown band with an entire horn section that includes trumpets, saxes, and trombones. Don't forget that equipment like the drum set and PA system may take up a lot of space. Although most groups won't require a stage to perform, if you genuinely want to put on a show, you could also want to lease a stage for the band.

To help you schedule the remainder of your evening, find out how long it takes the band to set up and do a sound check.

A band typically loads in, sets up their equipment, and does their soundcheck in about an hour or hour and a half. If you don't want to hear the Austin wedding bands during their soundcheck, you should ask the band for the specifics so you can organize the remainder of your day's activities.

The Bottom Line!

The following assumes that you've already chosen your wedding date and have a location reserved, or at least have a general notion of where in the US it will take place.