WEDDINGS
How far ahead to book wedding musicians in Colorado
Whenever you're ready is the short answer. What helps more is the order the decisions usually come in, what a booking involves, and the eight things to have ready before you write to anybody.
- Whenever you're ready. We hear from couples more than a year ahead and a few weeks before the day, and we're glad to help either way.
- The venue decision comes first and settles most of the music decisions for you: the sound cap, the curfew, the power, and whether the ceremony is outdoors.
- A song learned specially for you is the one thing with a lead time of its own, so let us know about it when you book.
- Eight things make an inquiry answerable in one exchange instead of four, starting with the date and the venue.
Somebody has just said yes, there’s a venue with a date on it, and somewhere on a list between the photographer and the flowers is the word music. The honest answer to how far ahead is whenever you’re ready. Couples write to us more than a year out and with the wedding only weeks away, and what helps more than a number is knowing the order the decisions usually come in, and what to have ready when you write.
The order the decisions usually come in #
The date and the venue. Everything else is a consequence of these two. Ask the venue for three things while you’re still deciding: the decibel cap if it has one, the time music has to stop, and where the power is for anything happening outdoors.
How the day splits. Ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, dancing. Many couples don’t need the same music for all four, and most of the hours are conversation rather than dancing. Deciding the split is what turns a vague budget into a bookable one.
The ceremony. The processional and the recessional are specific choices, and they’re the only part of the day where the music has to land on a cue. A solo guitarist or a duo covers a ceremony and then moves to the cocktail hour, which is one booking rather than two.
The cocktail hour. This is the hour where live musicians do the most work and the one couples most often skip. Find out more on our cocktail hour page, including whether you need one and what it should sound like.
The reception. The choice is a band, a DJ, or both in sequence, which is the configuration many full evenings land on. We walk through that decision in band or DJ for a Denver wedding.
| The part | What it needs | The usual size |
|---|---|---|
| Ceremony | Cues, and music that lands on them | Solo or duo |
| Cocktail hour | Volume you can talk across | Duo or trio |
| Dinner | The same, held for a long stretch | Duo or trio |
| Dancing | A dance floor that stays active | Quartet, DJ, or both |
What booking a musician involves #
In our experience it involves less than most couples expect, and the parts that take time are the parts nobody warns you about.
The inquiry is short. A date, a venue, roughly how many guests, and which parts of the day you want covered is enough for us to reply with availability and a price.
A contract is what fixes anything. Until a contract is signed, nothing is settled with any vendor.
Then comes the paperwork, which is the step that surprises people. Many Colorado venues won’t confirm a vendor until they have a certificate of insurance naming the venue as additional insured. Ask your venue whether it requires one. We can provide one and name your venue on it, so just let us know that’s something you need.
The detail comes much later and it isn’t urgent. Song choices, the processional, a do-not-play list and the flow of the day are settled in the weeks before the wedding.
The eight things to have ready when you write #
An inquiry with these in it gets answered in one exchange. Without them it becomes four.
- The date, and whether it’s fixed or still moving.
- The venue and its address, or the two you’re choosing between.
- Roughly how many guests.
- Which parts of the day you want music for.
- Whether any of it is outdoors, and whether there’s cover and power.
- The venue’s decibel cap and the time music has to stop, if it has given you either.
- Whether the venue requires a certificate of insurance.
- Anything you already know you want or definitely don’t want.
Numbers five and six are the ones that change the answer most, and they’re the two couples almost never think to include. If your venue asks for footprints, power and load-in in writing, they’re on our technical page by size.
If the wedding is coming up soon #
If the wedding is coming up sooner than you’d like, no worries. Just reach out and we can often make something great work. Send the date and the venue and we’ll come back with what we can do for that day.
The one thing that takes a little longer is a song learned specially for you, since we usually need a few weeks before a booking to learn new material. With less notice than that, the answer is the songs an act already plays, which for many couples is the better outcome anyway, because a band plays a song it knows better than a song it learned last week. What our roster already plays is on the repertoire page.
If the wedding is in the mountains #
Mountain dates ask for a little more planning, and the reason is travel rather than music. A mountain date means a drive with weather on it, a loading dock or a shuttle at the other end, sometimes a night’s lodging, and altitude that changes how long a sound check takes. None of that is hard. It just helps to tell us the venue when you write, so the travel is in the plan from the start.
Find out more about travel for the mountain corridor on our mountain page. If the weekend around the wedding is what you’re planning, the welcome party and the rehearsal dinner are private parties in everything but name, and we’re glad to help with those too.
