A couple choosing between websites for wedding bands in Dublin are doing it at eleven at night with a glass of wine and a list from the venue coordinator. They want to see you play at a real wedding, not in a rehearsal room, find out how many of you there are and how long you play, check whether you do the ceremony and the DJ set as well, and then the only question that matters: are you free on their date. If they have to email you to find out, many will not bother, because the next band on the list put a form up.
We build the site, the Google listing and the deposit by card, and send you the numbers each month. You play the gig.
The video that books you was shot on a phone
Couples are not judging your lighting. They are picturing their own friends on that dance floor, so the clip that sells is a full song from a real wedding with the floor in frame, people dancing, the room a bit dark. Three or four of those from different venues, different songs and different sizes of crowd, hosted on YouTube and played in place on the page.
Put the set list on the page. Not the whole repertoire, the shape of a night: how you open, what you play when the older guests are up, what you close with, and that you learn the first dance. A couple will scan it for three songs they love and one they hate, and then they will ring.
What the night includes, in one list
Every band gets the same questions by email, and all of them belong on one plain list:
- How many in the band, and who plays what
- How long you play and how the breaks work
- Whether a DJ set after the band is included or extra
- Ceremony and drinks reception music, and what that costs on top
- What you bring (PA, lighting, the lot) and what you need from the venue
- Public liability insurance and PAT testing, available on request
- How far you travel and when travel is charged
That list, with a from-price for the standard night, answers the first email before it is written. A price on the page loses only the couple who were never going to pay it.
Ask for the date before anything else
The enquiry form puts the date first, then the venue, then the numbers, then everything else. It lands in the band’s WhatsApp group and in your email with the answer already obvious. If you keep a list of booked dates for the season on the page, updated from your phone after each confirmation, you stop being asked about Saturdays that went last spring.
When the couple says yes, the deposit holds the date, and on the site it is paid by card the same night rather than by a transfer that arrives in a week or does not. We wrote up how deposits work online in Ireland, including the consumer rules around non-refundable wording.
Christmas engagements and the Saturdays that go first
The year for a wedding band starts on St Stephen’s Day. The engagements of Christmas week turn into enquiries in January, booking summer dates twelve to eighteen months out, and the Saturdays from May to September go first. Midweek weddings fill through the year, with a second small wave of enquiries in the autumn. A line on the site saying which season you are now booking into, and which months are already full, does a lot of quiet work.
Many couples book a band and a DJ from the same enquiry, or at least ask whether the band covers both. If you offer the DJ set, say so plainly and price it. If you do not, say who you recommend and how the handover on the night works.
Reviews from the couple, and the auntie
Google reviews for a band come from two places: the couple, and the guests who had a great night and want to say so. The couple get a text from the site the week after the wedding with a direct link to your review box, once they are back from the honeymoon. The guests you can catch on the night, with a line from the stage and a card by the bar with the same link. Reviews that describe the dance floor book the next wedding.
What to send us
Three or four live videos, the set list in the shape of a night, the lineup with first names and instruments, your packages with from-prices and what each includes, your insurance and PAT position as you want it stated, the counties you travel to, and one good photo of the band on stage. Ten minutes on the phone with whoever handles the bookings and we have the rest.
Plan and price
Complete is €1,499 to set up and €100 a month, and for a band taking deposits and living on reviews it earns its keep. Essentials at €499 and €50 a month suits a band that only wants the videos, the list and the date form online. The two plans are compared on the pricing page. Bands outside Dublin start with a phone call.