Boston, MA January 27, 2010

WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced Men In Black has been selected to receive the WeddingWire 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for Wedding Bands!

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Men In Black is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that Men In Black is among the very best wedding bands within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at

http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/boston-wedding-band-men-in-black-boston/17ae347ddf1d4046.html

Booking the Band

As the leader of top party band Sound Connection, Andy Kushner has performed for Donald Trump at Mar-a-lago. He's played at weddings on the polo field of a private ranch in Santa Ynez, CA, and on the beach of the Hilton Waikoloa Village in Hawaii. He's worked with wedding and event gurus including Colin Cowie, David Tutera and Preston Bailey. In short, he's a pro. So we asked Kushner to give us his best tips to help you choose and work with your band. Here is his advice.

Research Your Musicians
Popular bands may be booked as many as 12 to 18 months in advance, so begin your search as early as possible. Consider the kind of celebration you'd like to have. What are your favorite styles of music? What do you believe your guests will respond to? Would you like an affair with music in the background, or would you prefer your band to take control of the party, enticing people to pack the floor and dance until the very end of the evening? You may want a combination of both scenarios.

Get referrals from other professionals who regularly hire or work with bands. Consult experts like party planners, event and sales managers of venues, and vendors such as photographers, videographers and caterers. Other useful sources for finding a band include entertainment agencies, wedding and special event publications, organizations like the International Special Event Society, and the Web.

Bands' promotional materials vary and can include photos, song lists, brochures, CDs, DVDs and elaborate Web sites. You may be able to see a band perform at a wedding, depending on their schedule and the willingness of their clients. If you can do this, plan to arrive after the meal and rituals are over, sometime during the party's last two hours. The person who invited you (the bandleader or event planner) should indicate ahead of time where you should stand; while at the party, try to be as inconspicuous as possible. Those few minutes may not be indicative of the overall experience, so referrals are still the best bet. Ask references what the bandleader is like to work with, as he sets the tone within the band as well as for the party. Appearance and presentation (not walking through the crowd in casual clothes or carrying equipment) are also important.

Work Out a Contract
Once you've chosen a band, establish the terms of your agreement. It's a common misconception that you can guarantee that the band members you saw in person or in promotional material will be available to perform at your wedding several months to a year and a half later. You can't: Turnover in entertainment is no different than in any other business. Learn about the track record and overall performance philosophy of your band to ensure that their performance at your wedding is similar to—or better than—the one that inspired you to hire them.

Live entertainment contracts are fairly similar, with boilerplate terms and conditions. However, make certain that your particular concerns and requirements are clearly addressed. This includes the specific hours and location, any additional musicians to be added to the group (extra horns or vocalists, for instance), and other services to be performed, including musicians for your ceremony and/or cocktail hour. My band often travels to engagements, so I clearly state whether the fee includes hotel, airfare or production expenses. Most clients prefer an all-inclusive rate. I also recommend working out an overtime rate, in 30-minute increments, so that you don't have to negotiate in the moment if you want to extend the party.

Choose the Songs
Many couples are concerned about the specific songs the band will perform. But the feel of the party and timing of the songs are also important. Generally, you want to trust the band to perform the appropriate material at the appropriate time.

But, when you provide a list of requests, consider choosing songs according to the different phases of the event. For example, to immediately establish a fun party atmosphere, request an exciting and upbeat song when the doors open; this will set the tone for the rest of the night. Think about what you might like to hear as background music during the meal. I encourage clients to focus more on what they'd like to hear than what they don't want to hear, though I'm interested in knowing both.

Discuss Breaks and Flow
Should the band take breaks or provide continuous music? The latter usually involves rotating musicians and keeping a skeleton crew onstage during quieter moments, like the meal. Some prefer the full band to break during the entrée to allow them to refresh themselves and possibly change outfits. If you are having a formally served dessert course, this can also be a good time for the band to take a break. During those times, a band can provide recorded music. For our own wedding, my wife and I burned a CD of our favorite music to play during breaks.

Some clients and planners prefer dancing between courses, while others view the night in two distinct parts, one being the exclusive enjoyment of a wonderful and elegant meal with dancing afterwards for the remainder of the evening.

Find Your Harmony
Overall, you want a band that has the ability to set a tone that reflects your vision for the party. Helping people celebrate some of the most important moments of their lives is a responsibility to be taken seriously. If you choose a band that loves what they do and understands the intricacies of running a party, you will have good memories for a lifetime.

Washington, DC–based Andy Kushner, who also plays the trumpet and keyboards, has been performing professionally since he was 15.

— Andy Kushner

This content originally appeared in Elegant Bride magazine.

More Wedding Tips

Five Steps To Making The Perfect Band Choice For Your Wedding

1. Call your local agent 9-12 months ahead of the wedding date. The most popular wedding bands get snapped up early so make this one of your top priorities. If you plan to marry in December, be prepared to pay a premium for your band as those precious Saturday nights are often booked for corporate parties.

2. Decide on your budget for music – don´t forget the ceremony music and DJ for the breaks! This can be a dollar range or you could decide what is the most you can spend. Be honest with your agent and let her present the best options you can afford, but not tempt you with bands completely out of range.

3. Look at all the band options in your budget presented by your agent and narrow it down to 3-4 bands. You should be able to view online a band´s photo, song list, and biography and listen to an audio sample or view a video. Ask for references. If there is a special song you are sure you want played, ask if the band would learn it. You should be able to evaluate the options pretty well in this manner, but it´s always great if you can see the band playing live.

4. Ask for opportunities to see the bands live and take along your fiancé or a friend. Introduce yourselves to the band leader on the break and tell him you are considering them for your reception – get a feeling for the band´s personality and see if it´s a good match. Keep in mind, though, that if the band is playing a date open to the public that they may dress differently, and may play a repertory that they would not play at your reception. The most professional bands know that their behavior, attitude, attire, and playlist are very different at a private party.

5. Confirm the band with your agent and look for her paperwork to outline all the details of the party. Your agent will note the name of the band, the number of performers, the date, time, location, type of event, and outline the payment terms. It should be clear who is providing the sound and lighting equipment, as well as the staging, power, break room, and any hospitality for the band. If you don´t engage a DJ to play music on the band breaks, make sure the band will provide recorded music or that you can plug in your mp3 player. Relax and know you´ve made a great choice for your big day!

Budget

Budget enough to get the very best. Most couples pay from $60 to $150 per guest for food and yet they try to hire a band for around $7.50 per guest (based upon 200 guests). This is not very wise since the food will not hold everyone's attention for 3 or 4 hours like a band will. Ask yourself this: The band has to pay for thousands of dollars of musical instruments, P.A., lighting, formal wear, etc., office expenses, technical personnel, and the musicians themselves, right? How professional can a band possibly be if they are willing to play at your reception for one-tenth of what the food is costing you? I'm often amazed at how low a client's entertainment budget is in comparison to food and the photographer. Many photographers today are charging $5,000 up to $10,000, and even that is still a fraction of what the food costs per guests. Let's face it, the guests will eat three more meals the next day. In 6 months, they won't have a clue what kind of food you served them at the reception. But they will remember whether or not your reception was a ton of fun. And what kind of photos will the $5,000-$10,000 photographer snap at the reception? Will they be pictures of guests eating chicken fingers or having a blast on the dance floor? The irony is the chicken fingers cost you much more than the pickin' fingers. Who creates the party? Will the reception end when the food is eaten and the photos are taken? Let's face it! The ultimate success of your reception is riding on the "low-bidder", the entertainer. GET THE BEST!!!