Prices
What I charge, and why
No "prices on application." No "packages from." Here is the actual list, and underneath it, an honest explanation of what makes live music cost what it costs.
If you are still working out the shape of the day, start with what actually happens in each part.
Every part of the day, with its own price
Prices are bespoke, in the plain sense: you pick the parts you want and they add up. The cheapest part is £300 and all six together come to £2,700.
- Ceremony30 to 40 minutes
- £400
- Afternoon drinks reception45 to 60 minutes
- £500
- Wedding breakfast2 × 45 minutes
- £600
- Evening drinks and turnaround45 to 60 minutes
- £500
- Evening party set45 to 60 minutes
- £400
- Your first danceOne song
- £300
Pick as much or as little as you want
There are no set combinations to work around and no minimum. One part is fine. So is the whole day.
A 50% deposit secures your date. The balance is due one month before the wedding.
Book more than one part and I knock something off. As a guide, one part is around £500, two parts around £800 and three parts around £1,000. The parts vary, so those are guides rather than a quote, and where your own parts add up to less you pay the lower figure. The real number comes back in my reply, usually the same day.
Booking most of the day?
More than three parts, or something that does not fit the usual shape of a day? That is a conversation, not a price list. Tell me what you are thinking and I will come back with a number.
These are the same numbers paid by couples who booked exactly these parts.
Build your day and see the number
Tick the parts you're thinking about. The price updates as you go. Nothing here commits you to anything.
Your day so far
£0
Pick a part of the day to see a price.
Nothing here commits you to anything.
Tell me your date and I'll tell you within 24 hours whether it's free.
What's included, every time.
- A professional PA, sized for your room, indoors or outdoors
- Acoustic guitar and vocal looping, so one person sounds like more than one person
- Full setup and soundcheck before your guests arrive
- Backup equipment for everything, in the van, every time
- A planning call before the wedding, on the phone, as long as it takes
- Sample recordings of your key songs sent before the day, so you hear them first
- Travel at 50p a mile from Stansted, Essex, and I tell you the figure before you book
- Public liability insurance, certificate carried, sent to your venue on request
What moves the price.
Up
- Weddings outside mainland England. Italy and Croatia are quoted separately and depend entirely on flights, kit hire and how many nights I need to be there.
- Sets longer than an hour, or unusual timings that mean a second setup in a different part of the venue.
- Very short notice, occasionally, if it means moving something.
- Travel, at 50p a mile from Stansted, Essex. I always tell you the figure before you book, never after.
Down
- Midweek and off-season weddings. If you're getting married on a Wednesday in February, tell me, because I'd rather play than not.
- Midweek dates and quiet months, mostly. Each part of the day has one published price and it is the same price whichever parts you pick.
Doesn't move it at all
- Learning a song you've asked for.
- The planning call.
- Sending your venue my insurance certificate.
- Setting up early.
Why one singer and guitarist costs £250 and another costs £2,000
Both exist and both are legitimate. Here's what actually separates them.
At the lower end you're usually booking someone who does this alongside another job, plays a fixed set, brings a small speaker and covers an hour. For a birthday party or a garden do, that is often exactly the right call and I'd tell you so.
At the higher end you're booking someone whose entire income is weddings. That buys you equipment that won't fail and a spare of everything in case it does, a PA that fills a marquee without deafening the front table, public liability insurance your venue will ask to see in writing, someone who's done this enough times to know what a registrar needs and precisely when to stop playing, and the time to learn your song properly rather than approximate it on the night.
I'm in the upper middle. £300 for a single part, more as you add parts. I'm not the cheapest acoustic act in Essex and I'm not trying to be.
Is it worth it when a playlist is free?
Honest answer: for some parts of your day, no.
Your drinks reception will be perfectly fine with a playlist. So will most of your wedding breakfast. Nobody has ever gone home from a wedding and said the canapés needed live music.
Where it genuinely changes something is the moments when everyone is looking at you and nobody is talking. Walking down the aisle to a live version of your song, played ten feet away, rather than a recording through a ceiling speaker at a volume someone has guessed at. Signing the register with music underneath the conversation instead of a track fading awkwardly while the registrar talks. A first dance arranged to a length you can actually dance to, rather than all four and a half minutes of the original while everyone watches.
So if you're only booking one part, book the ceremony. And if you're booking none of them, build a really good playlist, hire a decent speaker and put someone sober in charge of it. That's not me being modest. That's genuinely the better outcome than a bad live act.
How the money works
A 50% deposit secures your date. The balance is due one month before the wedding.
You are not asked for the whole fee a year in advance, and nothing at all is due to ask me whether your date is free.
No booking fee, no agency commission, no VAT surprises. What's on this page is what you pay.
Changeable weather meant moving around a bit but he accommodated us perfectly and sang brilliantly. All of our guests commented on how great Tom was. Tom couldn't have been more helpful, approachable, and answered all of our questions before the wedding speedily and efficiently. We felt we were in good hands before our big day and were assured of it on the day itself.
Right, is your date free?
That's the only question left. Send it over and I'll answer within 24 hours.