What do I offer to pay?

MrsHoward11

I can't remember what I charged when I played for weddings so I'm totally lost! What is a reasonable amount to offer to pay someone to play for the ceremony part of our wedding only ?  We're wanting either a solo acoustic guitar or a violin/flute duo.  Also, I'm putting up flyers at the local university's music dept.  I just don't want to pay way more than I need to but at the same time, I don't want to insult anyone either. 

LisaE12

In the DC area, the going rate for a harp soloist is $350 for the ceremony only. A guitarist might be $300. For an ensemble, I would expect to pay $200-250/person. Music performance majors at a local university might be willing to play for around 20% less. Of course going rates depend upon your locality.

calliopeia2013

For a student gig, I'd probably offer $200 or more for a soloist and $150-ish apiece for members of an ensemble.  That's about what I charged when I played in string quartets in weddings in college.  For professionals, that might be substantially more- though typically professionals will advertise their own prices.  When I was in college, I was pretty willing to take whatever a bride wanted to offer me- as long as it was over about $100, I guess.  That was probably the minimum I would have taken in college, though I think I did a wedding in high school for $75?

OliveOilsMom

My organist is charging me $200.  But she is the music director at my church, so that may be a discounted price.  She has played for 35+ years at weddings!

cwaggoner07

I put an ad out on Craigslist (for a wedding in the heart of Dallas), and I got 10 emails within 2 hours. I wanted just one guy playing acoustic guitar, and I wanted him to have a mic for our officiant (outdoor wedding) and some sort of amp or speaker. I only offered $150, which includes rehearsal the day before. The total time I will need him the day of the wedding is just an hour, and I offered for him and his wife to stay afterwards for dinner/drinks/dancing/whatever.
I found a great guy who has done weddings. Those musicians scour craigslist! I had so much luck!