July Weddings

The Jazzberries are now fully booked for July weddings in 2012, so either July brides are the most efficient all of a sudden, or the trend is moving away from June being the busiest month for weddings.

Any ideas?

Fit Brides

I met two lovely ladies yesterday who call their business Fit Bride – yes, they get brides fit! What makes them different is that they combine personal training with image consultancy, making sure that brides have a dress that really suits their body shape, and fits as they get fitter!  Take a look – http://www.fitbrideltd.com

2012 weddings

Wow, August isn’t over and already the bookings are flooding in for 2012 weddings.  It looks like being a busy year!

We’ve a fabulous new Hot Club Quartet/Quintet line-up for those who love gypsy jazz. We’ve just made a video of this group so we’ll put it online very soon. Very smart in their black suits and mustard shirts.  Just drop us a line if you’d like them sent to you by email.

Perfect Wedding Music

 We at The Jazzberries pride ourselves on providing a highly professional, flexible and friendly service for weddings, so we’re thrilled to have been nominated as “Best Wedding Entertainment” category in the Perfect Wedding Awards.

Voting is open until 1st August 2011, so if you love our music we’d really appreciate your vote.

To cast a vote for The Jazzberries please click here .  Thanks!

How to get wedding reception timings right

I thought I’d write a post about the thing that goes wrong most often – timings at wedding receptions.  If your venue or caterer gives you good advice then you’re one of the lucky ones – sadly many don’t.

Nobody really wants their guests to drink too much on an empty stomach, or get bored while photos are being taken…  And certainly you don’t want to splash out on entertainment and then find they barely have time to perform.

So here are my top tips for getting the timings right:-

1.  Give your photographer a time-scale and ask them to stick to it – your guests are more important than 101 different shots in the fairy bower.

2. Ask the caterers to provide decent nibbles if you’re having a longish drinks reception.  This will help your guests pace themselves and not get drunk too early. One great way to do this is have your starter in the form of substantial canapes (ask your caterer to be inventive). It allows your guests have more time to mingle, so they’ll enjoy the seated part of the meal without gettting restless.

3. Allow enough time for speeches – and make sure your speakers stick to their allotted time.  I’ve recently been at weddings where they’ve had fun with a “warning bell” and another with a public sweepstake on speech times – it was all very good-humoured and helped long-winded speakers to control themselves.  One nice way to do speeches is one or two between each course, which means they’re not all together in an over-long chunk and the meal is well-spaced too.

4. Talk to your caterer about how long it takes for everyone to get fed for your numbers in your chosen style ie buffet, table-service etc.  Then make a time-table and double check it with the caterer.  This is all too often overlooked!

We once arrived to play at a very smart wedding and sat around for 3 hours because all of the above went wrong… Then we went home without playing a note because the venue had a noise curfew.  They still had to pay us, and I felt very sorry for the bride and groom, who had been let down by others.  Follow my simple tips and it won’t happen to you.

Have a great day!

Alternative Wedding Photographs

Yesterday I met a lovely lady who runs http://www.weheartpictures.com.  Their strapline is Rocking Wedding Photography so I had to take a look…. well, the photos are gorgeous.  So if you’re looking for something different and beautifully contemporary, take a look…

250 Weddings

We can’t quite believe it, but in 2009 we’ll hit our 250th wedding.  That’s 250 brides, 250 groom and 250 first dances…  OK, so maybe less of the latter, as not everybody does one.  

The first wedding we played together as a band was a family one in Yorkshire – I don’t suppose we were that brilliant in those days, but they seemed to love it – so thanks guys!  The first dance was ‘When I’m 64’, which we’re about to play at a family 50th wedding anniversary – nice symmetry.

To celebrate The Jazzberries’ 250th wedding we’re offering an amazing 20% discount on hiring The Jazzberries Swing Band for weddings in London & the South East during July 2009.

Welcome!

Welcome to The Jazzberries Wedding Music Blog.  We’ve been performing music at weddings across the UK since 1997 so we’ve seen a few things…. Here’s where we get to chat about them and maybe help you plan your big day in the process.