Reception Bands - Negotiating Price??

meaghanandalan

Hello,
I was wondering how much others are paying for their live bands (along with number in group and hours for comparison purposes) and if anyone has had success in negotiating the price. 
I am just blown away--every proposal we get is more expensive than the next!
Thanks!
MC

ncwenze

  we really wanted dueling pianos, we love them. so i got prices for three different companies.  
 
  the company we decided to go with is giving us 2 piano players (who bring all of their own equiptment).  they are playing 3 hours with only one small break for $2500.00  they are also going to put on an ipod during cocktail hour and dinner for us
  
   the company we are using quoted us a little bit more money initially, when i told them the other company quoted us 2500 they price matched.

   all three companies were between 2500 and 3000

hope that helps. my bff got married last summer and had a live band. they were around 2300.00
 

kblezien

All good wedding bands are going to be expensive...wayyy more than DJs...but I swear (and so do my guests), my wedding wouldn't have been half of the party it was with a DJ instead of a band.  Our band was AMAZING and every single day I still get comments about how fabulous they were...and our wedding was over a month ago.

When we were researching bands, which was 18 months ago, we found average prices for ceremony music, cocktail music, and dinner/dancing music to be anywhere from $9,000-12,000 for 10-12 pieces.  They will try to talk you into "dancing between courses", and I would HIGHLY recommend it!  It does end up costing a little more because the orchestra is playing for a longer amount of time, but our guests are still raving about the fact that they actually got to get a good half hour on the dance floor before the first course was even served.  Everyone loved it, and the dance floor was packed the ENTIRE night...people were even saying there was practically a waiting line to get on the dance floor. 

Our wedding was on New Year's Eve so we had the band go an extra 2 hours than it normally would have so our total cost was just over $14,000 for the band but that included ceremony, cocktail, and dancing between courses for 6  hours.

The entire time we were planning our wedding my dad kept saying how livid he was about how much money was being spent on the band.  After the wedding was over, he says it was the one vendor he would have paid more because they did such a fabulous job and because they really were the most vital part to the amazing evening it was. 

The numbers seem intimidating in the beginning, but trust me, if you want to invest in a wedding that no one will forget and everyone will have a great time at....hire a wedding orchestra!

muldoon744

Yes, I had the same experience of sticker shock at the prices! In the end we are having a 7 piece band for $7,000. That includes a piano during cocktail hour, 4 people during dinner and the entire band for three hours of dancing. We will have to cut out on some other areas but feel it's worth it.

Hope that helps! Good luck :-)

hboo2011

We had a popular 5 person cover band for $6,500. 3 hours, with two 10 minute breaks.