Wedding Blog

Here is a peek into how the bees budgeted for live entertainment for their weddings! Be sure to check out the rest of the posts in our Real Bee Budgets series!

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Mrs. Quiche’s Live Entertainment

Band: Steel Drum Band
Price: $400/hr x 2 hr = $800

Ceremony music (Calypso Trio (included for ceremony) & hired for an additional hour): $100
Speaker/Microphone/iPod hookup (for after) - $225

“Our resort offered a number of options for live entertainment, but initially, we didn’t want to spend the money on it. For example, the reggae band was $3,000!

In the end, we wanted to have authentic Jamaican flair & hired a steel drum band. What a great decision! They were awesome. We changed our minds about having them at the reception & decided we’d rather have them at the rehearsal dinner. It was awesome!”

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Miss Bear Cub’s Live Entertainment

Band: We found our band by placing an ad on Craigslist for a Bluegrass/Folk band
Price: $900

“We love how their music is actually more like Irish bluegrass/folk.”

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Mrs. Bee’s Live Entertainment

Band: Ronnie Gesser - ceremony trio, band, dj for last two hours of reception
Price: $6550 (Spring 2005 prices)

Ceremony/Cocktail Hour (2 hours): cello, violin, flute
6 Musicians - Band leader/bassist, female vocalist, drums, guitar, piano, sax
Reception (2 Hours): DJ

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Miss Cherry Pie’s Live Entertainment

Band: Good Wood
Price: $1,200

Ceremony: Sister on violin
Reception: Good Wood

“I found our band, as the first hit in a Google search for local Montana bluegrass. After I listened to a few clips, I thought, ‘Damn, these guys are good.’ I made a mental note to come back to them later. Then, I scoured search results, local directories, and MySpace for more worthy bands and could find nothing that compared. So, I listened to every streaming mp3 that Good Wood had to offer, was suitably impressed, and dropped them a line. Two days after we started entertaining the idea of live music, we had booked our band.”

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Mrs. Butterfly’s Live Entertainment

Band: DJ, Manhattan City Music
Price: $1,350

“Let’s see - the tea ceremony was a few minutes delayed because he couldn’t figure something out on his system. I gave him a Korean CD to play, then the tea ceremony gave him their music and he kept insisting that I had given him something first and didn’t want to play the tea music.

When the venue people told him that it was time for the bouquet toss, he announced, “and now it’s time for the bouquet toast?” I had to gesture an actual toss for him to understand me. He had to start our first dance song over a few seconds into the song… I don’t know why.

I had dealt with the owner of Manhattan City Music the entire time, but I think that was a mistake. Obviously there was some lack of communication between the owner and the DJ. However, he did not play any of the songs from our “do not play” list, people did end up dancing and having fun, and there were no blatant mistakes. Plus, he was pleasant to work with.

I kinda wish I had paid a little more money for a better DJ, but the other DJ I wanted never got back to me in time.”

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Miss Joey’s Live Entertainment

Band: Paul Schernitzki (Pianist)
Price: Free

“We’re going with the iPod, but will have some live music!”

“Mr. Joey plays in the Tailenders (so does Paul) so getting them to play at the wedding was easy. I’m really excited the guys can play at the reception. Mr. Joey has been playing with them for years and all the guys worked at EMP with us when we met. It’s like a throwback to our beginnings. ”

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Mrs. Plumeria’s Live Entertainment

Band: DJ
Price: $400

Ceremony Music: $0.
“We had one of our talented friends play piano during our wedding ceremony, as well as a men’s quartet from our church, whom Mr. Plumeria and I both play for during their concerts, provide the vocals. It was so fun, and deeply meaningful to us as well. ”

Reception Music: $400.
“We had a friend who has done a lot of wedding music in the past — basically, the fee covered use of equipment and the time it took him to set up and take down everything. He didn’t serve as a DJ, per se, but he managed the sound booth for toasts, introductions, announcements, and of course, music, which we played via an iPod with labeled playlists so he knew what to play and when.”

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Mrs. Kiwi’s Live Entertainment

Band: DJ
Price: $150

“Our DJ was terrible. We paid too much for him, although we didn’t pay much!! Sadly, I didn’t really care about the music, which was such a selfish thing, but he did get all our “decided” songs right. He was $150.00.

Word to the wise: don’t ever listen to a friend who tells you he has an awesome friend who could totally do the wedding for cheap. It was cheap, and sucked. We most likely could have done better with an iPod and our MacBook.”

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Mrs. Corn’s Live Entertainment

Band: The Belltones (Reception)
Total Price: $4895

Ceremony Music: $905, String Trio
Reception Music: $3,990, The Belltones

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Mrs. Cupcake’s Live Entertainment

Band: John Romani of Electric Entertainment (DJ and MC)
Price: $795 total for five hours of music — one hour during cocktails, and four hours during reception.

“John played my best friend’s wedding in the summer of 2006, and the dance floor was constantly packed. It was a no-brainer to book him for our wedding, and he did a perfect job — he played songs from our “please play” list, avoided songs from our “do not play” list, and he played off of the crowd to determine the order of songs to keep everyone on the dance floor. He only talked when it was necessary — during introductions and a few small announcements throughout the evening — and the dance floor was packed all night. We had originally only booked John for four hours, but he threw in the cocktail hour free of charge since he’d already be setting up. ”

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Mrs. Mascara’s Live Entertainment

Band: Steve Orchard from The Music Tree
Price: $600 for 6 hours (booked in Fall 2008)
Cocktail hour entertainment - free!

“We are having a family friend play piano during the cocktail hour. While technically we are supplying a piano, my dad has taken care of it so I have no clue what he’s paying. He might be borrowing it from somewhere for all I know!

Our DJ played at a friend’s wedding two years ago and did a fantastic job! We knew for sure we had to have him for our wedding too! Hopefully he’ll keep the dance floor packed all night! ”

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Miss Powder Puff’s Live Entertainment

Band: Chris White (Guitarist)
Price: $75 per song

“Chris is the worship pastor at our church, and is incredibly talented. I’m so happy he’s performing for our wedding! He’s completely easy-going (he’s learning two new songs for us), and is even performing some of his own, original work.”

Band: Dance Tracks
Price: $700

“We found Dance Tracks after they handled the music at my cousin’s wedding last year. They did a fabulous job, and I can’t wait to see how they’ll do for us!”

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Miss Cowboy Boot’s Live Entertainment

Band: Elephant Revival
Price: $1000 for 30-minutes of pre-ceremony mellow music, 10 minutes of ceremony music, and three hours of reception music with three 10-minute breaks. They’re also learning two songs for us!

“Our band came recommended by a Boulder, Colorado, local who was big into the bluegrass scene. We really wanted Nashville’s hottest right now, the Infamous Stringdusters, but they ran $7500 plus travel fees. Yeesh.

Instead, we hired Elephant Revival who are actually playing some bigger music festivals this year!“