Issue 27: So, What Does Live Music for a Wedding in NJ Really Cost?
Weddings are expensive, for sure. If you are planning a big wedding, between the venue (and catering if it’s not provided), entertainment, photography, videography, potentially a planner (if the venue doesn’t provide one, or you want someone specific), ceremony costs (either at your venue or elsewhere), invitations, etc…. The list goes on and on. So, if you are the typical couple, in order to figure out what to budget, as you decide what you might want, you start searching online for typical wedding costs for various categories. You make a budget based on what you find, and start making calls…. And that’s when you start finding out how wrong those numbers are.
So, what did you do wrong? How could your budget numbers be so far off when you did your due diligence and tried to find “normal” costs? Honestly, you did nothing wrong. The reason the quotes are so different is simple - the most prominent articles that come up in a search are from the Knot or Wedding Wire, and those sites only ever provide national averages. So, when they take surveys, it doesn’t matter where they are or what they hired - it gets factored in. And there are different expectations for live entertainment at weddings depending on where you live, meaning there are different considerations for band leaders when they form their bands that greatly affect the cost.
If you are looking for live entertainment in New Jersey, or even New York, what are you to do? How can you best budget for your entertainment if you can’t find out how much it might cost you to have an amazing live band? Well, hopefully this will help.
The Knot claims the average band costs $3,900 nationwide. WeddingWire claims $4,500. Neither mentions a band size, or what else is included in that price. However, in New Jersey, that won’t get you much of a band. The New York metro area is known as an area that has some of the priciest weddings nationwide. The average band in Northern NJ will start booking at around $900-1000 per musician, and go way up from there, depending on a few factors (all of which are important for you to be aware of):
-Size of the band (a lot of smaller bands can end up costing more per person because there are fixed costs that don’t change until you get over 10 or 12 musicians, so those costs are spread out between fewer musicians, increasing the per musician price)
-Who runs sound (see why you ALWAYS want a live sound tech here)
-is any lighting provided
-are they insured
-how many songs will they learn
-and more…..
What about the ceremony and cocktail hour? Live music for those in New Jersey will be more affordable than a band, for sure, but you may still be shocked by the prices. The Knot claims a string quartet (a very popular option) will cost between $600 and $1200 for 1 hour, and WeddingWire estimates that ceremony musicians (they don’t discuss string groups on their own) will average $500 for the wedding ceremony. Those prices are very low. In the NYC market, for strings, expect to pay at least $1200 for a “no-frills” string quartet - they might learn 1 song of your choice for your ceremony, and won’t come with sound equipment (which is vital unless your ceremony is very intimate as a string quartet may not be heard in a larger space without amplification). For string groups to come with sound and learn everything you want for your ceremony, you are looking at $1500-$1750 and up. Adding a second hour at the same venue will be more affordable, though, since all the costs of travel, sound, etc are built into the initial price.