Davenport House wedding band Shropshire Hard to Handle wedding band + DJ
Davenport House wedding entertainment live music
As a bride or groom, you are likely to only visit a wedding venue only once. Yes, your friends will get married but you will probably choose a different venue to them, because as much as you love them, this will be your big day and you will want to do things your way; make your wedding reception an expression of your own personality and tastes.
As a professional wedding band performing over 200 bookings annually, during any given year there are certain venues that we will be asked to play at more than once, and the more we play at a venue, the more we get to understand the ethos that governs how a venue will run. It’s in how the venue manager communicates with their staff, wedding service providers such as HARD TO HANDLE BAND and guests. Because we are usually on site from 5pm until the end of the night, we get to see whether venues are able to maintain their energy levels and commitment to customer service until the last guest has left.
Each time we perform at Davenport House in Shropshire we enjoy the experience more! From the time we arrive to start setting up in the main ballroom, through soundcheck and throughout the evenings’ performance we have come to appreciate that the venue managers have perfected the trick of being ever-present but in the background, meaning if there’s something or someone requiring attention, they are likely to be on hand without having to be asked. Both kitchen and serving staff operate like a well-oiled machine, giving the overall impression of a delivering professionally run service.
As experienced musicians this is an approach we certainly appreciate because it is a level of service we strive to emulate, and with over 80 5* Google reviews from wedding couples who have chosen HARD TO HANDLE BAND and DJ for their wedding entertainment, we believe it’s something we consistently deliver.
“Fancy words”, we hear you say, “but what does this actually mean?” We’re glad you asked! In short, this is why we are the perfect choice as your Shropshire wedding band at Davenport House:
- Cost-effective, professional, and dependable live band and DJ
- Live band and DJ combined saves space and money!
- Over 2 hours of live band entertainment with DJ sets before, in between, and after
- Ideal for smaller venues and small to mid-sized events
- Extensive 370+ song live band playlist – rock, pop, indie, and more
- Select your favourite songs for us to perform at no extra charge
- Sound system and lighting included
- Fully insured
- No entertainment agency fees or involvement when you book HARD TO HANDLE BAND directly
- Guests dancing all night long!
Why are Shropshire wedding bands so expensive?
You’re getting married? Congratulations! Welcome to the world of the wedding industry, and increasingly confusing and maddening journey into a series of vague claims and hidden costs and exorbitant fees offered by a bewildering variety of service providers, most of whom do the same thing and seem to love the word “package”. You will however be glad to know that HARD TO HANDLE BAND are here to dismantle a lot of the smoke and mirrors around what Shropshire wedding bands offer. Why? Because we want you to be confident that when you choose us to perform at Davenport House as your Shropshire wedding band, you will be in full possession of all the information you need and will be confident in the decisions you have made.
Let’s kick things off by disposing of the word “package”. When a wedding band or entertainment agency offers you a package, it means that they have broken down the service they offer into constituent parts so they can charge you more than you wanted to pay. It’s as simple as that – a cynical way of making money. Want the band to learn your first dance? You’ll have to pay them. Want them to learn a couple of other songs? You’ll have to pay them. Want additional DJ music? You guessed it – you’ll have to pay them. And that’s even without factoring in additional fees if you have chosen to hire your band through an entertainment agency. Oh and not forgetting that the endless versions of the band on offer, ranging from a three piece to an eight piece – the budget you set only really allows for the cheapest version of the band but they don’t sound so good without the additional musicians so you might have to pay more for the extra players to make the band sound a little better.
HARD TO HANDLE don’t offer any “packages” – just everything you need for a great might’ entertainment from start to finish: over 2 hours of high energy dancefloor-friendly live music, your favourite songs learnt and played AND a live DJ taking request and mixing sets for all your guests’ music tastes at one surprisingly cost-effective fee.
Can I hire a local pub-style band for my Davenport House wedding reception?
You might think that the sanest alternative to walking through the minefield that is hiring professional Shropshire wedding bands for your Davenport House wedding is to book a band you saw playing at your local pub. After all, they sounded OK, got the drinks flowing and crucially are a lot cheaper than professional Shropshire bands. Uh-oh. Stop right there. The first problem is that for any band to perform at a private venue (ie. not a pub), they will need to demonstrate that they are insured and tested – by which we mean that they hold public liability insurance and have a PAT certificate. The rule of thumb is that professional bands do, pub bands don’t. If you have hired a local Shropshire covers band, either they or you will have to arrange and pay for insurance and a PAT certificate, because Davenport House will not let them onto their premises until they have seen copies of both. So the money you thought you were saving by hiring a pub-style band will be eaten up by having to pay for them to be certified to play. Oh, and don’t forget that the venue told you that they have maximum volume requirements which means that any bands you do hire needs to by able to play under 100 decibels. Is your pub band versatile and experienced enough or even happy to do this for you?
HARD TO HANDLE BAND bridge the gap between the good times and real music feel that you can only get from a proper live band with the assured professionalism of hugely experienced musicians with the requisite experience of having performed at Davenport House and hundreds of other wedding venues throughout Shropshire and the rest of the UK.
Can large wedding bands perform at Davenport House?
So, you just HAD to have that 8 piece large events band to perform for you, your partner and guests, didn’t you. It didn’t matter that you had to remortgage your house in order to pay for them; it’s that they sound good, play some of the music you want to hear and offer a DJ. And now it’s just the small matter of getting them to set up in the main ballroom. Wait, are you mad? Have you even seen the main ballroom? Bands are required to set up infront of the fire place, inbetween the door for the bar and the door where staff serve food from. And there still needs to be enough room for your guests to dance. Good luck with that…now Davenport House may be many things, but a large venue it is not. There is no practical way hiring a large band will work – they will be too cramped to perform effectively and your guests will have nowhere to dance. The only way forward for you is to accept that the band will have to slim down to a three or four piece, but because you didn’t check this in advance, you’re unlikely to receive a discount from the band.
There is however an answer. Instead of hiring a large, impractical events band resulting in budget blowout for your Shropshire wedding reception, solution is to hire HARD TO HANDLE BAND – as a three piece wedding band we are perfectly proportioned for small to midsized wedding receptions and more compact and intimate venues such as Davenport House. As a versatile and experienced professional band we know how to create a very full sound without having to use additional musicians. Our set up footprint is very compact, meaning that we can comfortably set up all of our band equipment AND our DJ can also set up, leaving plenty of space on the dance floor for your guests, which is a good thing because they will certainly be dancing all night.
Hopefully we are ticking all the boxes you had initially thought of as well as some you didn’t even know existed (for more answers to wedding band questions, visit our handy FAQ page https://hardtohandleband.co.uk/questions-and-answers/). So what are you waiting for? Get in touch!
HARD TO HANDLE WEDDING BAND – 2 hours of killer indie, rock, pop and more + live DJ!
Tel: 0796 433 5657
E: info@hardtohandleband.co.uk
https://hardtohandleband.co.uk/live-wedding-bands-shropshire/