How much does it cost to hire a wedding band?
There will probably only be a handful of occasions in your life when you find yourself requiring the services of a live band for a celebration. Maybe you’re organising a milestone birthday like a 40th or 50th. You might need live music for a corporate event or a fundraiser. Perhaps you’ve been asked to book entertainment for your work’s Christmas party.
When it comes to your wedding reception, live music is usually an important factor in making sure your wedding is one to remember. But how much does it cost to hire a wedding band? For many the cost to hire a band for a wedding reception can come as a shock. Some wedding bands will charge between £250 to £350 per musician.
A four piece rock band can cost anything from £1000 to £1400 for an evenings entertainment. Toast do not charge that sort of money for weddings in and around Sheffield. You should contact us for a quote, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Why is it expensive to hire a wedding band?
A £1000 to £1400 might seem like a large sum to hire wedding entertainment, but is it? To answer that question, let’s say the cost to hire a four piece rock band for your wedding is £1000. A typical wedding reception schedule could look like this:
- Band members arrive at the venue at 6pm and unload, setup and sound check their gear.
- The band perform your first dance at 8:25pm
- The first set starts at 8:30pm
- The band takes a break at 9:30pm and maybe the DJ takes over for half an hour
- The second set starts at 10pm
- The band finish at 11pm and the DJ takes over while they pack up
- The band leave around 12pm
In this scenario the band have been on site for 6 hours. For a four piece wedding band this equates to 24 man hours (4 x 6 = 24hrs). If we divide the fee by £1000 by 24 we get an hourly rate of just under £42. Let’s consider the overheads that come out of this fee like the cost of travelling to the venue, time spent learning the first dance and other requests, hiring rehearsal space, PAT testing equipment, purchasing Public Liability insurance and marketing. It’s easy to see how the costs mount up and why it might seem expensive to hire a wedding band.
Is hiring a wedding band worth it?
1. Make Your Reception Rock!
Nothing gets a party started like a live wedding band. The energy and spectacle of musicians performing live never fails to breathe life into a party.
2. Get People Dancing
Live music has the ability to break down the most resilient inhibitions and get people dancing.
3. The First Dance
Your first dance is a special moment, ask your wedding band to perform a unique version of your favourite song so that the moment is a one off event.
4. It’s Got To Be Loud
There’s no guarantee that your venue will have a sound system capable of pumping out music for your guests to dance to. When you hire a wedding band, they’ll bring their own PA and should be happy to run a disco for you, saving you money on a DJ.
5. Get People Talking
It’s a great ice breaker and a talking point for your guests.
6. A Wedding Band Will Light Up The Dance Floor
The wedding band will have their own lighting rig to transform your event room into a dance floor. Another thing you don’t have to worry about.
7. Choose Your Favourite Song
You get to choose the tunes. As part of the package, most wedding bands will offer to learn some of your favourite songs for your special day.
8. Make Some Memories
People always remember a good party and a wedding can be memory people will carry with them forever. A live wedding band can help create that memory and every time you bump into friends and family for years to come, they’ll say “your wedding was brilliant”.
When you hire a wedding band it’s important to think about the style of music you and your friends will want to dance to. There is no point in hiring a Madness Tribute Act if you love 90s Britpop. Contact a few wedding bands and have your questions ready. Check out their website, watch their videos and most importantly listen to their music.
A wedding band should be able to easily provide you with a list of the songs they know and help you put together a set list that will keep people on the dance floor all night.
Toast love playing weddings, it’s great to be involved in a couples’ special day in such an important and fun way. We’ve performed a wide range of songs for the first dance, from Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend” to John Meyer’s version of Beyonce’s “XO”. The pressure to get it right is high, but that’s all part of the thrill of performing a new song live for the first time.
It’s not just the groom who get’s to dance with the bride and we performed Heartland’s “I Loved Her First” at a wedding for the Bride and her Father to dance to. There was not a dry eye in the house after that.
There is a lot to think about when you’re organising your wedding entertainment. When the costs start to mount up, to hire a wedding band can seem like an unnecessary expense. It’s important to consider that this likely to be the biggest party you’ll throw and you want your guests to stay on the dance floor to the end and remember the night forever. A live wedding band can instrumental in making that happen.
You could go through an agency and they will have lots of bands on their books. They usually charge a finders fee to the band for this service and this charge is likely to be passed onto you, the client. Why not cut out the middle man? To hire a wedding band might not cost as much as you think. Get in touch today.