Louisiana-New Orleans

Inexpensive ceremony musicians and/or DJ

I'm beginning to look for ceremony musicians, but don't know where to look.  I've contacted the Fine Arts Ensemble and it would be $500 for a duo to play.   Can anyone recommend ceremony musicians who would cost less (I'd probably want a piano/cello combo, but cello/violin would also work). 

If I can't find ceremony musicians that will work within our budget then we'll probably have to do a DJ for the ceremony and the reception.  Has anyone heard of anyone doing an ipod or DJ for the ceremony?  And are there any affordable DJ options that you'd recommend?

Re: Inexpensive ceremony musicians and/or DJ

  • edited December 2011
    We are using Dr Jazz for our reception, but they do ceremonies as well. Their ceremony pricing is $250 per musician, but only $550 for a trio for 2 hours or $850 for 4 hours.  So if your ceremony and reception are in the same venue, it might be easy to do them for both.  Even if not, they might be able to do something for both. The guy is very friendly and helpful.

    Pricing is on their website  http://www.drjazzmusic.com/
  • edited December 2011
    I was on a tight budget for our ceremony musician and the best rate I found was Zorica Dimova with www.musiconsultant.com .  I only had a solo violin for $200, but I'm sure she also has reasonable rates for a duo - you should email for a quote.
  • edited December 2011
    Another suggestion is to contact the local universities' music departments and see if any music majors can do it. I'm sure that will save you a lot of money. They won't charge nearly as much as the professional trios and quartets.
  • edited December 2011
    i jus got this link from another because i needed a cheap videographer but when i went on the site i relized he has DJ service too, its $60 an hour which is really not bad at all, and if u get a DJ rather than soloist or ensamble u get a variety of music and any songs u want pretty much, hope this helps.  http://www.prodigy-mg.com/
  • edited December 2011
    also u can try to contact nicholls state, they have quite a few different ensambles that might work out for the ceremony. Im sry i though u were lookin for them for the reception, i misread it.
  • edited December 2011
    Thanks for all of the replies.  I've contacted MusicConsultant as well as Pan Music & New Orleans Finest Musicians.  I haven't heard back from MusicConsultant yet, but Pan Music has come in with the lowest price so far. 

    I probably will investigate the universities, particularly Loyola as I know they're supposed to have a really good music program.  Of course it's summer so I'm  not sure how many students are actually around right now.  My only slight concern is making sure that they show up on time and that they play well (i.e. no obvious problems...not that I'm expecting a Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma combo). 

    I've also spoken to a few DJs, and most of them would end up costing about $150-200 more to do the ceremony as well, which is approaching the price of a soloist.  So if anyone else ends up in my same situation, at least you have a ballpark figure to go from. 
  • themadplannerthemadplanner member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    You might try Pan Music, as well.  www.panmusic.com, I think.
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards