Great music provided, but
My husband and I were very impressed with the quality of the music. And most of the band members were very professional!!
We really appreciate my husband being allowed to get up on the drum kit and jam and I SO appreciate them allowing my cousin to sing our last dance song and working the rehearsal around the day of schedule she had as a bridesmaid.
Before I get into this let me be very very clear. I have never left a review like this, ever. I normally only leave reviews where I can say all nice things. If I can't, I just do not speak on it at all. This is literally out of character for me and it has taken me over 4 months to work up the courage to be honest. I feel like when you pay this amount of money, yes you expect the quality of music to be great (which it was), but you also want some respect and professionalism as well.
The only reasons I feel like I can not give excellent ratings:
The band was asked by 4 different bridesmaids, my mother and another vendor to stop slamming doors and talking at the top of their lungs (they were actually yelling) while in the house (where they were getting dressed in a warm room provided to them). Due to circumstances, we had to film our First touch and prayer inside. They were made aware of what was happening 6 times. They did not respect it at all. It took a 7th time of one of my bridesmaids to go in again and yell at them to stop. You can hear them during our first touch and prayer. I could hear them as this was happening, but my bridesmaids and another vendor made my husband and myself aware of how many people it took to get them to stop (even though they knew what was going on) and how disrespectful they were being. We were both upset during the first touch moment when we could hear them, but we were truly embarrassed and upset to learn how many people made them aware of the situation and how it was completely ignored when they were asked nicely 6 times.
I really took my time and laid out a very detailed father - daughter dance timeline and we gave it to them. I even cut the song myself and provided the time stamp at which the band was supposed to come over the mic and invite all fathers and daughters to the dance floor to dance with us. This was important to me because 1. I wanted my sister to be able to join us. 2. My dad and I didnt want all eyes on us for 120 seconds straight because we were nervous. Even though I provided an extremely detailed layout and included time stamps, the band forgot to do this. That would have been fine with me. I understand mistakes are made, we are all human. However, instead of just allowing the song to fade and move on, they chose to invite all fathers and daughters after the song ended and restarted the song, with me saying "no, let's not." My father had already left the dance floor by the time they even got on the mic to do this and I was literally standing alone on the dance floor and they STILL did this. I felt embarrassed and it was honestly this introvert's worst nightmare. My dad made it back after about 30 seconds of me standing alone. I felt like all my preparation and detailed layout was a waste of my time and I felt like the band did not care that they literally saw me standing alone and the chaos it caused. It made my father and me look like we were the ones that were unprepared and unorganized. He and I were very upset by this, it overshadowed our special dance and my husband was upset as well because he read the layout before we ever sent it to ensure it was fool-proof.
Am I thankful for the things they did do, yes of course. They are amazing musicians. However, to me, I do not care if you are the best at what you do if you do not have respect for the people who hired you and if you have zero remorse for looking directly at the bride asking you to stop and you still continue to do what she is begging you to stop doing. I will say, most of the members were respectful. The disrespectful ones were only a few, but they did cause stress and chaos that was not even necessary.
Once again, the music and entertainment factor was FABULOUS. They did show professionalism in certain ways (allowing groom to play drums and bridesmaid to sing). I just value a vendor who is respectful to everyone on the grounds, listens to the opinions of the bride and groom, and maybe is a little more prepared when it comes to the first dances. Respect is more important to me than the quality of the entertainment factor, but that is also a personal opinion and preference. And maybe these members were just having a bad day, we all have bad days. I just feel like people need to know about the disrespect during a first touch and prayer.
Just posting this for other brides like myself so they are not dealing with what I did.