6 – Tell the band what to play:  It’s tempting, you have a long list of songs you love, and it’s your big day after all!  It’s a common mistake to make, and it’s a biggie!  By dictating what the band plays, you’re preventing them from doing their job.  They are massively experienced in knowing not only what songs work well for your audience, but also when in the evening certain songs work best.  By all means let them know if there are a few favourites the band play that you’d like to hear (or NOT hear!), but then trust the band to do their job getting your guests onto the dance floor having a party!

7 – Leave it to the last minute:  You’ve found a band you like, your friends and family think they’ll be perfect too, so why not book them now, even though it’s a year away?  Most popular bands book months ahead, if you leave until too close to your big day, there’s every chance they’ll already be booked to play somewhere else, and you’ll have to start your band-search all over again – for your second-best choice!  Book your favourite early.

8 – Start the band playing early:  The meal is finished, the speeches are over, everyone’s happy, perfect time to start the band, right?  Wrong!  It’s tempting, but it’s a mistake to start too soon.  Guests are usually more than happy to drink and socialise after the events of the day, so don’t feel pressured to keep them entertained.  You’ve spent good money on a great band, so don’t start too early when people aren’t ready to dance.  Start at 8.30 or even better 9pm to make sure your guests are still up and dancing late into the evening - you don’t want the evening to peak too soon!

9 – Choose a venue with sound limiter:  If you haven’t heard of these, they are a trip switch that cuts the power to the band at a certain pre-set volume.  Many venues have them poorly installed and set to be too sensitive, meaning even playing an acoustic drum kit or a saxophone on stage will cause the power to trip “off”.  They are a real pain to live musicians, but professional bands will still be able to work around them.  It just means the loud band you were looking forward to rocking out with will be quite a lot quieter than you were probably hoping for.  Or maybe you prefer an acoustic band…?

10 – Choose a band for your own musical taste:  This is controversial, after all you want a band you like at your wedding don’t you?  But are your guests really going to enjoy indulging your taste in 90’s shoe-gazing indie-pop?  Is it going to be a good party?  Pick a band that you and your guests will love, ask around among your friends and family for opinions on bands you’ve shortlisted, there are loads of great professional bands around, there’ll be one perfect for you all to have a great night!

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READ  "Ten Top Tips When Booking A Wedding Band..."