Weddingbee boards

Our string quartet!  They were very resistant to working with us before the wedding -- we arranged a listening session with them two weeks before the wedding to hear the special arrangements we'd requested, only to be told after we arrived that they hadn't started working on our music yet!  The head of the group would tell us that he was "sorry to concern [us]" but that the quartet had "played many weddings" and "never failed to delight."  I should have insisted that someone from the group attend the rehearsal -- we offered extra money if someone would come, but they said it wasn't necessary.

Well, on the day of the wedding, they screwed up our processional!  They were supposed to play 3 songs, one after the other, but instead they restarted Song 1 when the bridesmaids started up the aisle.  They realized their mistake, stopped Song 1, and started Song 2, but it was very noticeable that they'd totally botched it.  Not the worst thing that could have happened, obviously, but we worked so hard on the music selection, and I was really disappointed that they did such an amateurish job with our processional!  If I had it back to do again, I might have fired them after that "listening session" if we could find someone else who was still available, even if we had to change our music.

KateMW, the best thing I can tell you when booking vendors is that the way a vendor acts before the wedding usually reflects the kind of job they'll do at the wedding (at least it did for me!).  The vendors who were responsive to my questions and followed through on what they said they'd do were awesome.  The two who were a PITA to work with (the woman who printed our invites, and the string quartet) ended up justifying my concerns with further poor performance.

If you're at all uncertain, keep the deposit small, and don't be afraid to fire anyone if they're in charge of something important and giving you attitude or ignoring you!

krae, I think as long as whoever you hire is willing to come to the rehearsal, you'll be fine!  For us, the problem wasn't cost (they were less expensive than many other groups, but I wouldn't call them cheap), it was more about their attitude -- they were all recently graduated with masters' degrees in music, and I slowly came to realize that they thought playing weddings was easy and beneath their talent.  (They were *extremely* talented, I'll give them that, just not very professional!)  Find someone who's enthusiastic about weddings and takes your music seriously!