Cocktail Hour Music Before Reception?

silverspark7

Hey Ladies,

Im in the process of trying to figure out how to coordinate the entertainment for our reception.  We have chosen the Audubon Tea Room and want to have cocktails and hor d'oeuvres on the back patio for about a half hour before we open the doors and really get the party going.  Problem is, I operated under the assumption that the band we would hire for the full reception would be able to provide an acoustic set or a couple of brass instruments for that part.  Now, I'm trying to figure out how to coordinate music for the outside.  I'd like a jazz trio, but in my preliminary research, it seems like they don't go for such a small time frame.

Have any of you done or plan on doing a jazz trio/acoustic set while your guests have cocktails before the full reception starts?  We're not having a sit down dinner, but want to give our guests some time to mingle and enjoy some passed appetizers before the indoor food stations open.  Any thoughts you can give me will be appreciated!

[Deleted User]

I am doing the same thing at the ATR!  I we hired a small acoustic band called "Will Work for Whiskey"  Let me know if you would be interested and I can get the info for you.  My mom used to own a bar on the WB and she hired them to play there all the time.

msp7186

I'm actually very interested—can you PM me the info? Thanks!  I'd love to hear what you've learned about ATR, especially in terms of food selection.

wmh6

We aren't having a cocktail hour, but we're having jazz music played before the ceremony.  We went with New Orleans Finest Musicians.  I needed a trio that could play jazz before the ceremony and classical music for the ceremony so they are sending a violin, guitar, and trumpet.  I would have liked to have more brass, but it wasn't really in the budget.  They have a lot of musicians that play different instruments so it may be worth looking into.  Good luck!

http://www.neworleansfinestmusicians.com/

Queen Jane

We are having the Courtyard Kings for our cermony music and cocktail hour, so about 1.5 hours.

silverspark7

Are you doing your ceremony in the same location as your reception?  That's where I'm running into trouble.  I would love to pay for the same group to do both ceremony and cocktails—but the ceremony is about a 15-20 minute drive from the reception location.

Queen Jane

Yeah ours is in the same location, so that makes it easier.

[Deleted User]

Nope, our ceremony is in a Church. We've atually hired 3 sets of musicians.  But the acoustic band wasn't much and we have a really small band for the reception so we had room in the budget to allow for all of it. 

kerrie86

The Storyville Jazz Band is doing my wedding-

The "full" band is 6 people for second line type stuff & a little bit of other music if you wanted.

Contact Alex Holmes, mholmes35@cox.net