Entertainment Mistakes Couples Regret After Their Wedding

It’s one of the most sig­nif­i­cant days of your life, so the last thing you want is to wish you could have done things dif­fer­ent­ly once it’s all over. (To be clear, we’re not talk­ing here about regret­ting actu­al­ly tying the knot, just the prac­ti­cal ele­ments of the celebration.) 

The real­i­ty is that, unfor­tu­nate­ly, peo­ple do have regrets in the after­math of their wed­ding, even though clear­ly no one wants to feel post-event anx­i­ety. But the good news is that, with prop­er plan­ning, you can all but elim­i­nate any poten­tial for remorse. 

Here, we look at some of the things peo­ple some­times bemoan, to do specif­i­cal­ly with the enter­tain­ment side of the occasion: 

1. Not book­ing your band or DJ ear­ly enough 

You need to ensure you book your wed­ding enter­tain­ment at a sen­si­bly ear­ly stage to avoid the dis­ap­point­ment of pop­u­lar bands or DJs being already snapped up. Some acts take book­ings up to 18 months in advance, so don’t hang around. It’s easy to assume that the per­former you have set your heart on will be avail­able … only to find that they’re already busy on your wed­ding date. And that’s espe­cial­ly the case on sum­mer Sat­ur­days dur­ing peak mar­riage sea­son. Once you know the band you want, bag them as quick­ly as you can. 

At Gecko Live, for exam­ple, key dates and acts tend to be tak­en months before time, while the agency works to an open two-year diary, with book­ings already being made as far ahead as 2028.

2. Not get­ting the tim­ing of your enter­tain­ment right 

Again, this is quite a com­mon one. Your pre-din­ner drinks recep­tion or the post-meal cock­tail hour are ide­al points in pro­ceed­ings in which to include enter­tain­ment. You can of course also have live music dur­ing the meal itself, but this can be more expen­sive, since it means musi­cians can’t take two book­ings that day, so you effec­tive­ly have to cov­er that cost. Think care­ful­ly about when you want your acts to perform. 

3. Pick­ing a first-dance song that’s too long

Ide­al­ly, choose a tune that’s just a few min­utes in length. If your favourite song lasts for much longer, con­sid­er danc­ing to the first cou­ple of vers­es and the cho­rus. That way, you can all enjoy the best parts of the num­ber with­out leav­ing guests poten­tial­ly feel­ing awk­ward or twid­dling their thumbs. 

Your wed­ding DJ or band should be able to advise on which sec­tions of your first dance choice would be best to use. And, by the way, inform the act of the song in ques­tion in plen­ty of time. As an exam­ple, Gecko Live asks for two months’ notice for this, ide­al­ly longer. 

4. Not allow­ing enough time for a sound check 

You’ll want the qual­i­ty of the per­for­mance to be at its best, so your band def­i­nite­ly needs to run through a sound check before it plays. Typ­i­cal­ly, this takes between 60 and 90 min­utes, although with Gecko Live acts there’s a 90-minute min­i­mum set, every sec­ond of which will be worth it. A sound check looks at acoustics, sound bal­ance, elec­tric­i­ty sup­ply, avail­able space, and so on. So fac­tor this into your sched­ule for your day. 

The process also ensures vol­ume will be kept with­in rea­son­able lim­its for the best expe­ri­ence for every­one in attendance. 

Talk­ing of sound, it’s also a mis­take not to find out whether the venue has a sound lim­iter. Find out what deci­bels it’s set at if there is one, and then find a band able to play com­fort­ably with­in any restric­tions imposed. 

5. Book­ing a niche band

For most wed­dings, you’ll want to cater to a range of musi­cal tastes, with the empha­sis on fun and well-known hits peo­ple of all ages can dance along to. 

6. Get­ting your mate(s) to play 

Leave your enter­tain­ment to trained pro­fes­sion­als who know what they’re doing. (After all, they do it for a liv­ing.) Oth­er­wise, if any­thing goes wrong, it could be the end of a beau­ti­ful friendship. 

Music cre­ates atmos­phere and adds to the sense of occa­sion. Book the right enter­tain­ment for the right points of the day and you’ll height­en the feel­ing of cel­e­bra­tion no end. 

Talk to Gecko Live 

At Gecko Live, we can take you from cer­e­mo­ny and drinks recep­tion through to danc­ing the night away with our incred­i­ble line-up of superbly tal­ent­ed per­form­ers. We’ll work with you to under­stand your vision and rec­om­mend the best DJ or live musi­cian for your big day. Plus there are no hid­den costs – it’s all part of the service. 

Start a con­ver­sa­tion today by mak­ing an ini­tial enquiry.