One cool thing about wedding gigs is that you usually get to eat for free and some of that chow can be really good. Sometimes drink, too.
OR - The noob wedding planner forgets that the band needs to eat, too! Thankfully an experienced and flexible caterer came to the rescue.
I've never played in a real wedding band. I have played a number of weddings in either pick-up bands that tried to put together a reasonable wedding set (Motown, reggae, and other happy music) or most of the time in a gigging band, sometimes an original music band. Most successful has been the gigging cover band, then the pick-up band, and most difficult was the original music band.
People just don't get it. Doing weddings with an original music band is *real hard* because Grandma and Aunt Sue just don't understand why we don't know Stardust or Autumn Leaves nor can they understand why we're *so loud*!! The pick-up bands have sounded un-polished, especially the beginnings, endings, and vocals. Cover bands seemed to have worked ok but mostly because we lucked out and expectations were properly set. We learned "Wagon Wheel" or "Isn't She Lovely" and otherwise played our sets- all good.
Now I always suggest charging at least $300 - $500 per man, plus whatever sound/lighting is going to cost, mostly just to avoid having to do the gig. With the original music band I just suggest to the leader nothing less than $3K, and he's perfectly fine not doing weddings, after some real tense moments having to learn some Jack Johnson tune and play it by himself during the ceremony. I wouldn't touch a wedding gig for $1200, certainly wouldn't equate a wedding with a weekend's worth of club performances, which are really so much easier in my opinion.
A real wedding band, that has a horn section, at least two very good vocalists, and does stuff from Sinatra to Motown, plus the MC and time management stuff, should get at least $4K. Whoever said a wedding should cost no more than $3K total, ok, but I don't want to get married outside next to the trailer, thank you, I'd like to rent a nice place to get married.
My wife and I managed to get married for about $5700, of which $2200 went for a jazz combo with a good singer and a drummer who knew how to play with brushes. The guitarist also played Bach on his acoustic during our ceremony (the wedding song, or march, whatever it's called, was strictly forbidden by my wife). We rented out a nice country club, which was surprisingly affordable compared to most places in town, although we needed to be sponsored by a member, and had them do the catering. Only had 70 people total, so it was mostly family, just a very few of our absolute closest friends. Everyone still tells us what a wonderful wedding we had, and the best part was always either the place or the band. I'd never hire a rock band to play a wedding personally, especially if the reception is under a tent! What a racket. But people don't know. I'd also really regret hiring a DJ, but have been to some weddings where the DJ actually did a very good job, so it can be done well. Still a good small jazz combo with a vocalist doing standards seems so classy to me. At our wedding the combo started with "How Long Has This Been Going On?" and it was honestly touching.
