Booking
From the first email to the last invoice.
Here's what happens at each step, who does it, and how long it takes. The contract, the certificate of insurance and the W-9 arrive in one email.
The steps
Timings assume a date six months out. A booking made three weeks before the event goes through the same steps in the same order, only faster. For a wedding, what couples report about their own timing is set out in how far ahead to book wedding musicians in Colorado.
| Step | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1. You write | 24 to 48 hrs | Availability and an exact number, itemised |
| 2. You hold the date | The day we agree | Contract, insurance certificate, W-9 and invoice, one email |
| 3. Your contact reaches you | Before the event | Your personal contact for the night, with a name and cell number |
| 4. You send the run of show | Any time | We fill in the band’s rows and send it back |
| 5. We agree the cues | The week before | One person owns each program moment |
| 6. The venue confirms | The week before | Power, stage, load-in route, decibel cap |
| 7. Load-in and sound check | The day | The space handed back to you, ready |
| 8. The night | The night | Your contact is reachable, load-in to load-out |
| 9. The invoice | After the event | One page, everything on its own line |
Deposit, balance timing and payment methods are on the question list. Load-in and sound-check times by band size, and the six venue answers in step 6, are on what we need from your venue.
Three things we need from you
Six of those nine steps need nothing from you at all. Three do, and they're the three that stall a booking when they arrive late.
- The date and the venue, to get a number
- A city works if the venue isn't chosen yet. We can price a night without a signed venue and re-price it when you have one, because travel is its own line on the quote.
- The venue name, to raise the certificate of insurance
- The certificate names your venue as additional insured, so it can't be issued before the venue is chosen.
- The run of show, whenever it exists
- Send us the draft, even if it's nowhere near final. We'll fill in the band's rows against whatever you have and send it back, whether or not you've booked us.
If something changes
Guest counts move, programs get rewritten, a venue falls through. Tell us and we'll re-quote. Added performance time costs what the earlier hours did, a smaller build re-prices down, and a changed date is something we'll talk through with you.
If a musician can't make the date, you get the substitute's name and the reason as soon as we have them.
Send us the date and the venue.
That's enough for us to come back with an exact number.
Also for planners: what we need from your venue, the run of show templates and the full question list.