The Weddings
The Jjarrs have performed at well over 100 weddings, delighting brides, grooms, their families and their guests with our wide variety of high quality music and polished performances. So we would like to think we know a thing or two about what what works best and what a bride and groom should look for when deciding on the entertainment for their big day.
If you have selected an impressive location for your wedding reception you will want some equally impressive entertainment to bring the day to an amazing close. What could be be better than a professional, highly energetic band, that can get guests both young and old on their feet, dancing and singing along to some fantastic live music.
We have performed at some prestigious locations across the UK including: Alexandra Palace, Ashridge House, The Pump Rooms in Bath, The Majestic Hotel Harrogate, Sopwell House St Albans, Brocket Hall Hatfield, Down Hall Essex, Duxford Aerodrome, Newmarket Race Course, The Belfry, Knebworth House as well as many more fantastic dedicated wedding venues.
To perform at these great venues has been an absolute pleasure, but they do require planning, high quality and reliable sound and lighting equipment, collaboration with venue management and a good understanding of what the bride and groom actually want, not to mention of course, dedicated, professional and highly accomplished musicians.
The Jjarrs have built their substantial reputation on the basis of providing a totally professional approach to each and every performance, understanding what is required of us, using high quality equipment and hours of dedication behind the scenes. We believe these are fundamental to providing the best live music for any event and are essential when performing at weddings
So what do brides and grooms need to consider when planning the entertainment for their all important day?
It's all about live music!
Alongside the ceremony, dress and the food, the evening entertainment is one of the main experiences that you and your guests will remember from your big day.
Live music for your evening celebrations provides an energy that you simply don’t get from other types of wedding entertainment or from plugging your i-pod into a set of speakers.
Function bands like The Jjarrs are still the preferred choice for weddings - the musical variety to suit all ages, the interaction with the audience and the great atmosphere are very hard to beat
We know that selecting a suitable band can pose a challenge especially if your only experience of live music is watching a scruffy looking band down your local pub, that play too loud, appear a bit 'crash bang wallop' and perform songs that they like rather than what the audience wants.
Function bands are different to pub bands, but you will be forgiven for thinking that a 'function band' will a bit old fashioned and stuffy. Professional function bands will have a wide repertoire of music to call on that suits all ages and tastes with the capability to perform to a very high standard whilst also being entertaining and thoroughly absorbing.
Finding a suitable band may feel like a step into the unknown and you may have concerns about reliabilty, attitude and professionalism, but this need not be the case. There are bands out there that can provide you will all the assurances and guidance you need to set your mind at rest. The Jjarrs are one of those bands.
We know you’ll strive to have a wedding day that is special and unique to you, The Jjarrs will be delighted to support you in achieving this. From the moment you engage our services, and with our vast experience of performing at weddings, we can guide you through your plans and determine what you need from us and how we can best approach your day so that our involvement appears seemless and integral to the days events.
The best wedding bands are the one that adapt according to circumstance and situation, and whilst there are some fundamental requirements that all bands need (such as access to power), we firmly believe that being flexible enough to achieve what the Bride and Groom want is essential.
We have listed a few pointers below to help you decide which band to select, what you need to ask them and what you would like them to provide for you:
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Would you prefer the band to speak to the venue directly? This can prove very useful
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If you have established the schedule for your day, when do you want the band to set up?
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Do you know what sort of space the band need and does this work with your room plan?
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Is the band fully self contained? Does it have a suitable sound system and associated equipment?
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Is there a specific theme to your wedding that you would like the band to work with?
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When do you want the evening entertainment to start?
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How long do you want the band to play for?
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Do you have any special musical requests, such as a song for your first dance?
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Can the band tailor their sets to suit the ages and tastes of your guests?
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Will the band be able to provide background/party music whilst they aren't playing?
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Is the band able to provide microphones for speeches and announcements?
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Does the band provide any stage or dancefloor lighting? What will it look like if they don't?
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What safety assurances can the band give you and are they insured?
We will gladly converse with your venue to discuss what requirements or limitations they have in place, this can avoid any problems on the big day itself. Setting up a band does take some time and all good bands need some time to do a soundcheck (this bit is essential), so consider whether you want your band to set up before your guests arrive or whether you are happy with the band setting whilst your guests are present. Our preference is to set up before hand wherever possible as this avoids any disruptions.
All bands will need enough space to perform, staging is nice but space is more important. We specify a space of 6m wide by 4m deep as start point (we can squeeze up if space is limited though). We will gladly advise you about the best position for us to set up within a venue if the options allow.
We are a fully self contained band so you can be assured that we carry everything we need to put on a great performance, and this includes a great sound system, lighting for the stage area and dance floor as well as all the little bits a pieces any great band needs.
Although fully themed weddings aren't that common, we are more than happy to work with any theme you may have. If this is simply a case of how formal you intend your day to be we can of course dress accordingly or adapt our stage dress as the evening progresses.
The biggest thing to think about is the entertainment itself. The band you select should be able to play music to suit the age range and tastes of all your guest and ideally fill the evening with live music.
Most bands will typically give you a maximum of 2 hours of live music with a break in the middle, but this isn't usually enough if your evening is going to start around 7:30 and finish at midnight. On this basis the band will be playing for less then half the evening. We however, will provide 3 hours of live music across an evening usually split into hour long sets.
From experience this provides just the right amount of live music, with a couple of short breaks in the middle for your guests to get their breath back and grab a drink! And we are like to provide party music or background music between our sets to help keep the party going - and we are happy to customise this music to your preferences.
In terms of the range of music, you will find a multitude of function bands that base their entire act on 'soul' music, whilst we love a bit of soul music, unless and audience wants nothing but soul it can become a bit one dimensional to listen to.
We have deliberately included on a wide range of music from Rock & Roll, Pop, Ska, Funk, Rock, Indie, Blues and Soul covering all the decades back to the late 50's so guests both young and old, will have something they can dance or sing along to. And most importantly we welcome the opportunity to perform a song of choice for your first dance as a married couple.
The Jjarrs are glad to assist with providing additional elements to support your entire day; whether this is the supply of microphones for speeches, providing the music for the wedding service, acting as Master of Ceremonies or arranging playlists of music to suit the individual mood of certain parts of the day. We will happily consider all requests and help wherever we can.
Selecting your wedding band
Whilst you can view literally hundreds of website featuring bands, listen to their demo songs and watch snippets of videos, nothing beats seeing a band in performing live.
We always recommend you see a band play live so you can actually see and hear what you are going to get.
This can be more difficult that you might think though. Top quality function bands, like The Jjarrs, don't perform in public very often as most bookings are for private events.
It's always worth asking a band if they are performing at a public event (even we do the odd pub gig), but where this isn't possible we invite clients to come and join us at one of our rehearsal sessions.
We will play a short set for you featuring a selection of songs from our repertoire. After which we can sit down with you and discuss your plans and what we can do for your over a coffee.
We have found that this has proved invaluable to our clients and re-assured them that we are the right band for them.
If you have spent much time researching potential bands for your wedding you will have found that the mention of cost is almost a taboo subject. Bands don't like to publish their fees for fear of being undercut by other bands or in case the fee scares off potential clients.
Bands will often tell you that there are so many variable factors to consider when quoting for a wedding so they don't publish how much they charge. Every wedding we play at is unique so prices can differ, but we know that don't help you to plan and budget, so we have averaged out what we have charged for weddings over the last couple of years and what clients have received for their money and it's just over £1200.
This is what you will get for your £1200:
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3 x 1 hour sets of live music across the evening
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Supply of all equipment including simple stage lighting
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A first dance song of choice
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Supply of background/party music during our breaks
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Early arrival to ensure we are set up prior to guest arriving
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Public liability insurance and health & safety compliance
We have to stress that additional charges are applied on top of this indicative price depending on travel distances, arrival and finish times or any additional elements that get agreed with us at the time of confirming a booking. This does, however, give you a good indication of what our fees are and what you get when comparing us with other bands.
The cost of a wedding band
We hope you have found this information useful to you in your search for a band for your wedding, and we would like to think you will consider us to be the band of choice for you. But don't just take our word for it, we have had many kind words from married couples and others that endorse what we say about ourselves. You can view this feedback by clicking here.