Your North West Wedding- August/September 2020 (Issue 63)

FLOWERS 61 MUSIC AND ENTERTAINM NT TOP TIPS ❤ Lots of musicians have demo recordings on their website; have a listen and decide whether their style is right for you. ❤ Discuss with your supplier how much room they’ll need for their instruments. ❤ Ask how long each performance will last so you can create a schedule. ❤ Find out if the performers require food or a space to get ready in. ❤ If you’d had to seat family and friends who don’t know each other together, why not add a little jar full of ice-breaker questions on the table? ❤ Most musicians will learn a specific song that means a lot to you both. ❤ If you can’t afford fireworks on your big day, then sparklers are a fun alternative. MEET YEW HAN BAKER FROM THE FUNTIME FRANKIES www.funtimefrankies.co.uk What do you offer couples for the big day? We provide a variety of live music and DJ options. Our primary offering is our twice national award-winning, high energy, fun and interactive live band. It comes in line-ups from three to nine players, with options such as DJ sets, sax and percussion, and acoustic music for ceremonies and cocktails. We can also provide at least four bands per night. What should couples expect when booking your services? We always do our best to be prompt and professional in all communications with our couples. We were established in 2005 and have performed at more than 1,000 events and haven’t cancelled a single one. We have built a hard-won reputation which we know can easily be unwound by one or two poor reviews, so as a team of musicians we always give it our all at every event we do. How long before the wedding should couples book? Our average lead time from booking to the wedding is around 10 months. Saturdays are, of course, the most popular and we often get fully-booked on these nights. As soon as you have booked the venue, the band should be next on your list. With the current Coronavirus situation, 2021 will be a squeeze with postponements from 2020 weddings. What’s your favourite wedding you’ve worked at? It would be hard to pick out a favourite as there are so many great parties that we’ve had the privilege to be part of, but a particularly memorable one from a couple of years ago was for a Chinese couple whose guests were from mainland China. It became quickly apparent that they knew very few of the songs we were performing, but that didn’t stop them from dancing all night. What are your top tips for brides-to-be? If you aim to have a successful evening party, do take into account what music your guests will enjoy rather than relying on what’s on your Spotify playlist. An experienced function band has a primary aim, and that is to fill the dancefloor and exhaust your guests from too much dancing. When searching for the right band, always look out for live footage from actual weddings. Anyone can churn out a showreel in a recording studio and make it sound professional and while it may give you an indication for their musicianship, it will tell you nothing of their capability to entertain a crowd. This is why we try to put as many live videos on our site as possible. The same would go for reviews from couples – we have dozens of video reviews available to watch.