Wedding Vows & Ceremony Discussions

Musicians

We are on a limited budget and it turns out our Church will not allow recordings, only live musicians.  What type are you having?  Fiance is a musician and metntioned a quintet, but I feel like paying 5 musicinas might be way more expensive that he is thinking.  I'm leaning more towards 2, but I dont' know where to start.  I want all instrumental. 

Re: Musicians

  • Does your church have an organist to play?
    Vacation White Knot
  • We originally thought about a string trio or quartet, but quickly realized that was going to be really expensive for a short amount of time ($500 for 1/2 hour ceremony).

    Now we're using the church pianist and he's great! I would definitely look into hiring a pianist or organist for your ceremony - check your local board for recommendations. 
    Anniversary
  • We haven't booked our musicians yet but we are also having live musicians for the ceremony and the reception. We are still talking about how many musicians we want.

    If we just get a soloist- such as a classical guitar player- it will be $450 for him to play the ceremony plus one hour at the reception. $600 for him to play the ceremony plus two hours at the reception. For each additional musician we add it will cost us approximately $200 more. 

    For us to have a trio do our ceremony plus two hours at our reception, it will cost us $1775. These are all prices from the musicians that we are currently interested in and these prices don't include their tip or their food.
  • Do you have any talented friends?  FI and I are musicians, so ours is free as a wedding gift to us.  We had a lot to choose from, but we're only going with an organ and a cantor.  My MOH may play a song or two on her violin because she's a pro and is amazing, but we haven't settled on that.  Def. check to see what it costs to have the church organist do it.  Honestly, I wouldn't go quintet - it's $$$ and it will probably sound a bit thin to you if you've heard organ music in church your whole life.
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • Oh and if you want all instrumental, your best bet is organ/piano + either flute or violin (oboe works too but they're few and far between).  They are C instruments so they don't have to transpose music or use special duet music - they can literally play over the shoulder of the pianist if needed.  If you want a trumpet, you'll need special music so the trumpet and organ can play together or else somebody will have to transpose it and that could cost $$$.  Some organs have a button that transpose automatically to be able to play with B flat or F instruments but not all do.  Flutes and violins (but especially flutes) are a dime a dozen - I'm a flute player also, and can tell you this from experience.  If there isn't a local college with a music program you may even want to look into hiring a very good high school student - you can contact local band directors and ask to audition their first chair flute players... as a high school student I would have been thrilled to receive $100 for a church service.  Now I would ask for more.
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • Too bad you don't wnat a singer... I am in the WNY area and sing weddings.(cheap too!)  My own fiancee is a pianist/orgnaist. I also know a couple who play violin and flute.
    As for your dilemma...check with local or nearby colleges/universities - look at professors and grad students in the music department. They (esp the students) might be willing to work for less and be sure to audition them!
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