Big Sky Strings

As a wedding planner, I work with a lot of musicians! Baerbel and Big Sky Strings are hands down the BEST I've found for Bozeman, Big Sky, and Livingston! They are kind, responsive, and have a massive repertoire of new and old songs! If you're looking for a unique experience for your guests and yourself, book Big Sky Strings!

I can't recommend this string quartet enough! They played at our wedding in Montana, and their music added the perfect touch of elegance and emotion to our special day. From the beautiful ceremony pieces to the lively cocktail hour music, every song was played with such talent and passion. They were professional, accommodating, and incredibly easy to work with. Our guests couldn’t stop talking about how much they loved the music. Thank you for making our wedding day truly unforgettable!

I employed Big Sky Strings out of Bozeman, MT, for my daughter's destination wedding at The Rainbow Ranch Lodge in Gallatin, MT. My communication was with the Manager and musician herself with Big Sky Strings, Barbel Pafford. From my initial contact through the wedding day, Barbel was always immediately responsive to any questions. The entire process was made easy. An extensive repertoire of the quartet's music was provided. The repertoire was everything one would entertain for a wedding and more! And, if you want music that is not included in the repertoire there was a minimal fee, and I mean minimal, for the musicians to learn the piece prior to the wedding. My daughter did choose a special piece, not included in the repertoire, for her walk down the aisle.
It was an outdoor wedding and cocktail hour and the weather was beautiful for an early June event. The musicians provided their own white linen tent just in case the weather did not cooperate and to keep the sun off of their instruments. They looked lovely in their professional attire.
We hired Big Sky to play 30 minutes prior to the wedding, during the wedding and through the cocktail hour. Their performance was absolutely magnificent, a true highlight of the celebration. I could not have been happier. It was perfect! If you are looking for strings to play at your event, I highly recommend Big Sky Strings!!! Thank you for making our celebration enchanting.

Thank you to Baerbel and the Big Sky Strings. They are so talented and professional and helped to make our dream wedding a reality.

Bärbel was an absolute wonder to work with! She was so kind and super flexible! We had an outdoor winter wedding so the ensemble had to stay indoors, but they worked incredibly well with our sound guy and made sure the day was amazing! She is flexible in what they play so that I got to walk down the aisle to Blink-182's I Miss You. She is incredibly kind and I could not recommend her enough!

Big Sky Strings is truly Amazing. They played for our ceremony and cocktail hour. Baerbel is so very easy to communicate with and she gets back to you very quickly. She helped me select music for our wedding and even played a special piece for our handfasting ceremony at our wedding. Our officiant forgot the ring ceremony and we walked down the isle after being pronounced Husband and Wife. The musicians simply played the recessional twice so we could go back and finish the ceremony. They just rolled with it without a word spoken between us. The music is dreamy and their instruments are beautiful. If you are going for a timeless music choice Big Sky Strings is perfect.

Big Sky Strings played beautiful music for our backyard wedding. Baerbel was extremely helpful with our music selection and we couldn’t have been happier with our trio’s performance. Our guests loved the music.

I can't say enough good things about Big Sky Strings—they were super pleasant and straightforward throughout all communication, and are truly talented musicians. Their presence lent our ceremony and cocktail hour some real gravitas (made everything feel much more "official" and "fancy") and they handled our repertoire and all "stop/start" directives and cues perfectly. You get to choose from so many songs and genres, we had no problem coming up with a personally meaningful, fun, beautiful, and varied set list. They are lovely people and wonderfully talented performers!

If you are thinking of having live strings at your wedding or event, I highly recommend Baerbel Pafford and the Big Sky Strings. The whole process went smoothly and they did a fantastic job when playing before and during the ceremony. They allow you to choose how many members you would like (duo to quartet) and I was able to request to have both a cello and violin play.

They reached out to me about 3 weeks prior to the wedding with a list of music broken down into different categories with youtube links to help me pick the songs that I wanted to play as the groom walked down the aisle, attendants, bride, etc. They had some modern songs as well as classical songs. I loved it because I asked them to play some modern pop songs that most people know while guests were arriving and being seated. It was very elegant but fun!

Big Sky Strings was perfect: Bärbel was lovely. They were proactive, accommodating and punctual. The music program they offered was extensive - both classical and contemporary. And of course the quality of play and musicality were top notch. Highly recommended.