The day the music died

Posted by Sara in Weddings.

I have been trying as much as humanly possible to have everything planned/taken care of for the wedding before the end of this month. Since we’re getting married in September, I want those last couple of weeks to be stress-free, and focused on just ironing out any last-minute details. And for the most part, we’re doing OK… of course though, there’s always something that just won’t go quite to plan.

Our “something” has been the ceremony music. Months and months ago, we met the musicians who were recommended by our venue: two violinists who were classically trained. They played at our tasting and my dad was a huge fan. Considering they were backed by the venue gave us confidence in their abilities and plus, we were able to hear them in the flesh. This is an easy one , I thought. As I’m sure you’re able to figure out from the blog title, I totally thought wrong…

It started off with one of the violinists moving away. It was just one violinist now, but they also worked with a guitar player. I’m pretty flexible, so I was find with the switch up. My dad thought it would be a good idea for us to do a trial with them, though, just to be sure… he said he’d set it up.

Initially I thought the problems with communication sprouted from my dad, his busy schedule, and his habit of sometimes not answering emails right away. When I suggested I start taking over the emails, I realized it was definitely not him. It was our contact in the duo– the violinist. It would take several days before a response would come through, and usually not all of the questions would be answered. I made it clear that I had a certain timeframe that I needed everything figured out and she assured me we had plenty of time to meet it.

That timeframe is the end of August. Today is August 25th.

When I asked for her phone number since I felt that the email thing wasn’t working, she gave me the guitarist’s number instead. OK… maybe I’ll have better luck, I figured. “Better luck” equaled waiting over a week to get a callback, and this was also after 2 emails to the violinist.

Needless to say my patience has totally run out.

I decided to take matters into my own hands last week. While at a coworker’s shower, he shared some information that I have found extremely valuable, and maybe someone else out there might too.

He talked about the difficulties he initially had finding the right musicians to play his ceremony. Since he and his fiance are getting married on a beach, he wanted some steel drum music to add ambiance. Unfortunately, steel drum musicians are a bit hard to come by in southern New Jersey. During his search he came across www.gigmasters.com, a website dedicated to helping people find the PERFECT entertainment for your event. From DJs, to live bands, to impersonators, they have it all.

After a brief search, I was surprised at how many matches came up that synced with my preferences. From this list, I was able to read reviews about the musicians, their policies/location, rates, samples of their repertoire, and even listen to audio clips! In less than a half hour, I plugged in my info, what I wanted, a brief write up on the specifics about our ceremony and the time frame we needed, and sent it on its way. You also have the option of having gigmasters.com send out your request to other musicians in the area, if you’re interested in having multiple groups bid on the event. Within 2 hours, I had a response from the people I was interested in, with a thorough, detailed email, a price quote, and even more contact information. The next day, the group’s representative followed it up with a phone call and since the ceremony would be close by to where they were based out of, she gave us a discounted rate.

The other great thing about this site is that it covers entertainers NATIONWIDE, so brides from ALL over can find the act they’re looking for!!!

Needless to say, the gigmaster’s group has definitely won out for OUR wedding… hopefully other brides will be able to find what they’re looking for there, too!

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