Having spoken to many couples and families who are thinking about booking live music for their special day and need some advice on how to go about this, I decided to produce my guide to what to consider, what to expect and what to ask when you speak to music suppliers.

This is part 1 of 3. I hope you will find it useful. I have used my experience to write this document and I must emphasize that it is for guidance only.

All musicians have different ways of working. I have tried to keep the information as general as possible. Factual information is correct at the time of writing this document.

Why book live music?

• Live music builds your ambience better than any recording
• The quality of sound is better than recordings
• It has tremendous impact – I am fortunate to catch the “oooh lovely!” when guests arrive

What you see and what you don’t

What you see:

• The musician arrives, sets up and plays your music

What you don’t see (and what you’re paying for as part of your booking):

• The amount of practising and general preparation for your day
• Time spent sourcing music and backing tracks
• Discussion and/or venue visits to make sure everything is going to be perfect
• A proportion of the fee goes to membership of professional musicians’ organisations, insurances and national insurance, income tax etc and for maintenance of instruments and equipment

I estimate that the average time I spend preparing for each booking is 20 hours.