Quintet fee for a wedding gig

[Tortuba]

My daughter is getting married in October and my community band quintet will be providing the music. The members are all enthusiastic mature amateur musicians who seldom, if even, get paid to perform. So, my question is, how much should I pay this group for the wedding gig?

The quintet will play for about 15 - 20 minutes before the ceremony, and will play two pieces at the completion of the ceremony. It is tux (or black suit) and bow tie. They will be sitting in the church loft throughout the ceremony. The total gig time will be around 45 minutes.

I've also asked them to attend the wedding rehearsal two nights before the big day.

The travel time to the church is 20 to 30 minutes for the musicians.

Any thoughts?

Keith

[Ace]

I haven't played a wedding for a long time, but did a few in the mid 1990's. Played one for free as a friend of the bride's family, but they slipped $30 in my pocket anyway. Did another for $75 each player. Still another for $100 each player. None involved driving over 5 miles, and no wedding rehearsals. Free dinners all. That was 15 years ago. I don't know what current rates are in this area. I personally wouldn't bother doing a wedding these days for less than $200 per player.

[bort]

I got married last October, and got a few quotes along the way from groups who do a lot of weddings. Range was about $750 to $900 for a normal walk in/service/walk out (no rehearsals). These were at least "semi-pro" musicians, meaning, they do this a lot and get paid for it often.

So maybe like $100 or $125 each for amateur friends?

[bort]

Are you feeding/watering them at the reception? (Assuming no...)

Two ideas:

1) Do a little research and see what other "professional" groups in your area would charge. If your friends are about as good, then keep their rate close. If your friends aren't as good, don't pay as much.
2) Tell your friends to give you a rate, and have them do the research.

[ParLawGod]

I agree, depends on where you live. It also depends on the players in your group, whether there is travel involved, if there is a need for special arranging, the list goes on.

Whenever I book a quintet in my area (ceremony only, no reception, minimal travel) I charge $650. Seems to be (in my area anyways) low enough to get some gigs, and high enough to make it worth everyone's time/effort/skill/etc. I also have a short quintet rehearsal (alone, not with the couple) a few days prior regardless of whether or not we have all played the music before. That's just me though...

If you have an "established" quintet it would probably be much easier to get in the $750-1000 range. I know quintets that do, and because of reputation they can ask for it...and get it!

[Stefan]

The fees mentioned here are, of course, right on. But I think you should put it to the quintet. That would be the most typical situation - quintet tells YOU what they charge. Being that they are amateurs, they might just figure they shouldn't charge much and you end up paying less than you thought. OTOH, they might overcharge thinking that they don't get many paying gigs and they need to make up for it. If they go too high, you can negotiate. Either way, you don't have to worry about what you should pay them.

Stefan

[Wyvern]

I would just ask them!

If they are amateurs used to playing for free, they may well be happy with just being involved in such a happy occasion and getting a free meal and drinks? I have even known amateurs being insulted at being offered money

If they state a price that seems reasonable, just pay - or negotiate accordingly. As Stefan said, it is not for you to decide the fee

[bort]

Attire, travel, equipment, etc. are the musician's responsibility. If any are extreme, then a case could be made for more $$. There is a cost to doing business and some expenses are inevitable.

[Roger Lewis]

For us it depends on the distance of the drive, OUR rehearsal(s) to prepare for it, custom arrangements for particular requests, if they require the whole group to be at the rehearsal, how much prelude/postlude, how much playing during the service, etc.

Often, to get the layout of the church, only one of us will go to the rehearsal to scout the seating, get the sequence of events during the service, meet the people involved and assure them that we'll give them a great show.

Usual fee for us (a professional ensemble) we start at $200 a man and then see how much other stuff is involved to go up from there. If one of our group members does a custom arrangement, he/she gets a separate fee for that, not included in the cost of the ensemble.

We have driven almost 200 miles for some weddings that we have done so that cost is included as well.

Just my $0.02.

Roger

[bort]

Attire, travel, equipment, etc. are the musician's responsibility. If any are extreme, then a case could be made for more $$. There is a cost to doing business and some expenses are inevitable.

Particularly in NYC, I strongly suspect that (all other things being equal) a drummer would be more interested in a gig where a decent set of drums is already in place, rather than one where a set of drums must be (bus...?? taxi...??? subway...??) brought in to a one-night-stand gig.

If I were doing the hiring, I wouldn't go out of my way at all to seek out stories about how heavy, how far, dry cleaning, etc. If they mentioned it, then I'd certainly be fair about it, like if someone drove 200 miles RT for it. (For example, for my wedding, we paid mileage and hotel room for the photographer, who drove about 4 hours for us. I would NOT expect him to NOT charge for this. If he didn't bring it up, I would have insisted to pay him.)

But if someone just had to drive 20 miles, bring stands, and wear a suit that may or may not need to be cleaned afterwards, that is little more than just showing up and being ready. If recovering those costs is a priority, build that into your quote.

And for the NYC drummer scenario, sure, that would sweeten the deal. You're right though, it's all about being interested and choosing to take the gig. I guess most people don't turn down gigs, but it's a possibility and people are free to chose that option. We all want to keep people happy and be fair. But if I've got a strict budget and you won't do it, I'll find someone who can, right?

[LOTP]

"- wearing a tux. (A cleaning bill is involved.)"

My tux gets cleaned once a year whether it needs it or not !