Weddings
Live music for a Colorado wedding.
A wedding has three pieces of music in it and they are three different jobs. Guitar carries the walk down the aisle, where the whole guest list is listening and nobody is talking. The hour after it has to do the reverse, sitting under a hundred conversations that all start at once. Then a floor has to fill and stay full until the last song. One booking covers all three.
The two live moments have their own pages here: the ceremony, where an acoustic or Spanish guitarist plays the prelude, the processional and the recessional, and the cocktail hour, where a jazz or acoustic duo plays at a volume guests can talk across. For the reception, a DJ holds the late night on the same contract and through the same sound system. In the city, the Denver cocktail hour page covers the venues and the downtown logistics.
Trusted and booked by
The look
A courtyard, and a guitar outdoors.
Dirty Flamenco in a stone courtyard, and an acoustic set in the open air: the two sounds a Colorado wedding books most.
The day
Three moments, three different jobs.
Couples usually start by asking what band to book, and the more useful question is which parts of the day need live players at all. These three are not interchangeable, and the act that is right for one of them is wrong for the next.
- The ceremony
- The one stretch of the day with a whole guest list paying attention to it, so the music is exposed and the timing has to be exact. A guitarist plays the guests in, plays the processional, holds under the ring exchange if the couple wants it, and plays the recessional. How the parts are ordered, how many songs each one needs and how long it all runs are on the ceremony page, along with acoustic guitar and Spanish guitar as the two versions of the same booking.
- The cocktail hour
- The turn of the day. The couple leaves for photographs, guests stand with a first drink deciding what kind of night this is, and the venue may be turning ceremony seating into dinner tables behind a wall. A duo at 65 to 72 dBA covers the whole hour without asking for attention. What plays, how many songs, whether anyone notices and whether a duo is enough for seventy guests are all answered on the cocktail hour page.
- The reception
- A floor that has to fill and stay full for hours, and that is a DJ's job rather than a duo's. An open-format DJ reads the crowd from the first dance to the last song, on the same contract and through the same sound system the earlier music used. Where a wedding wants live players for dinner and a DJ after it, that is one booking rather than two, and the drive, the load-in and the sound system are paid for once.
“Our guests couldn’t stop talking about how amazing he was, and we loved how he read the crowd and kept everyone engaged. He went above and beyond to make our day special, even learning a few of our favorite songs just for us.”
What live music costs across Colorado, format by format and figure by figure, is set out in the cost guide.
The formats
What to actually book for a wedding
Four sizes of musical act can cover nearly every Colorado wedding, and the guest count influences more of that choice than the budget. Each one is spec'd on its own page: instrumentation, footprint, power and a sample set.
- The solo guitarist
- One instrument, the smallest booking here, and the standard ceremony build. It plays a processional without amplification in most indoor spaces and sets up in 6 by 4 feet. Details on the solo guitarist page.
- The jazz duo, and the trio
- Upright bass and guitar playing standards, the lead booking for the cocktail hour and the one that carries straight through dinner. The trio adds drums played with brushes for a bigger floor or a longer guest list at the same conversation volume. Both are on the jazz duo and trio page.
- The acoustic duo
- The same footprint with the set turned toward singer-songwriter covers, for a wedding that wants the songs one notch more familiar than standards. Details on the acoustic duo and trio page.
- Spanish guitar
- Nylon strings, as one Spanish guitarist for the ceremony or the cocktail hour, or as real flamenco played by Dirty Flamenco, the trio, with one set piece placed where the reception leaves space for it.
Every size comes with sound, load-in and strike, a certificate of insurance, and a personal contact reachable through the day. The whole song list is on the repertoire page. For a wedding in Colorado Springs, the Colorado Springs wedding page covers the venues and the drive.
For whoever is running the schedule
Wedding dates get decided ten to twelve months out, and twelve to eighteen for a mountain venue or a fall Saturday. Music tends to be shopped nine to fourteen months out, later than the venue and earlier than almost everything else on the list. That is the calendar, not a countdown: send a date and you get a yes or a straight no, with the figure for that day attached.
Most of a wedding's music questions are really timing questions, and the working documents live on the planners pages: stage footprints and power by size, load-in and strike durations, what arrives with the contract. How each moment hands off to the next sits on the run of show page, and altitude, curfews and mountain-venue detail on the mountain corridor page.
The paperwork is the fast part. A certificate of insurance naming the venue, a W-9 and one itemised invoice come in the same email as the contract, and a named contact with a mobile number in writing is reachable from load-in to load-out.
Wedding music questions
The cocktail-hour question set, from how many songs to whether anyone notices, is on the cocktail hour page. The ceremony cluster, from prelude to tipping, is on the ceremony page.
- What parts of a wedding day need music?
- Three, and they are three different jobs. The ceremony needs a prelude, a processional and a recessional. The cocktail hour needs something guests can talk across. The reception needs a floor that fills. One booking can carry all three, and most couples book two of them live and the third as a DJ.
- Can one booking cover the ceremony and the cocktail hour?
- Yes, and it is the most common shape here. The same players walk from the ceremony space to wherever cocktails are happening, on one contract, one load-in and one invoice. That also solves the gap while the couple is away for photographs, because nothing has to be set up in between.
- Do we need a band for the whole wedding?
- No, and most Colorado weddings are better served without one. Live players carry the ceremony and the cocktail hour, where volume and attention have to be handled by a person reading the crowd. A DJ carries the reception, where a floor has to stay full for hours.
- How far ahead should wedding music be booked?
- Wedding dates get decided ten to twelve months out, and twelve to eighteen for a mountain venue or a fall Saturday. Music is usually shopped nine to fourteen months out, which is later than the venue and earlier than almost everything else on the list.
- Do you play outdoor weddings in Colorado?
- Yes, and most of them are outdoors. Outdoors adds three requirements at any size: a covered, level and dry performance area, power run to it, and a move-indoors call written before the day. Colorado evenings drop fast after sunset, and instruments and electronics both stop behaving in the cold.
Book the ceremony, the cocktail hour and the reception on one contract.
Live music for your event, from a solo musician to a full band, with sound support that’s the right size for the venue and a personal contact for the night.
Send us the date and the venue, and we’ll come back with a recommendation and a price for your night. What live music costs in this market is on the pricing page.