In this episode, Jared takes you behind the scenes of a high-paying wedding gig in Estes Park, Colorado. He shares exactly how to approach playing ceremonies and cocktail hours—even if you’ve never done it before. From planning your prelude set to nailing the timing of the recessional, this is your crash course on wedding gigging success.

"Weddings aren’t as stressful as musicians think—especially when you charge high rates and filter out dramatic clients before they book."

- BookLive: Everything you need to start marketing and booking your act online (without having to hire or rely on a tech team!)​
- Your First Gig: Everything you need to book your first high-paying gig.
- Fulltime Music Masterclass: The Secret To an Unlimited Stream of High-Paying Private Event Gigs …Without Spending a Fortune on Online Advertising or Having Any Connections!
- Fulltime Music Academy (Gig Vault): 24,665 High-End Venues + Event Planners: Use this directory to book your highest-paid gig to-date.
- Breaking Into High-end Gigs Masterclass: How I Went From Broke Musician to Thriving By Breaking Into These Largely Unknown High-Paying Gigs

What's up, renegade musicians? It's Jared Judge. Welcome back to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast.

I'm my way up to a gig in Estes Park, Colorado, which is about two hours away from where I live. It is a wedding gig that it pays, I think, anywhere between 1500 and 1750.

I can't remember the exact amount right now. Playing wedding ceremony and then cocktail hour, which I love weddings.

I know that this is kind of a newer thing to a lot of musicians, but they are awesome. They're not as stressful as you might think, especially if you've got the right systems in place and especially if you filter out potentially not so fun clients to work with.

And that's a big reason why I meet with potential clients on a Zoom meeting beforehand and charge high prices.

So that I could filter out the ones that are gonna be dramatic and cause issues. So, yeah, if you've never played a wedding before, I've talked about this on previous podcasts, but the easiest thing for musicians to grasp is the wedding cocktail hour.

Wedding cocktail hours are awesome because in my opinion, they're the closest things to bar gigs that you can have at a wedding, but the pay is often 10 times as much as a bar gig.

Plus, you don't have to bring any people to it. It would be wildly inappropriate for you to do so. But a cocktail hour is very much laid out like a bar gig.

You know, it'll have a definitive start and end time, like 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM. And then you have to arrive early, obviously. Set up your sound system if you have one. Get your instruments all set.

Do a sound check. And then once 5:00 p.m. rolls around, you're just playing an hour of music, entertaining guests.

You can do a little bit of audience interaction if you want to, but there's no requirement to, which is perfect for introverts like me who like to hide behind my instrument and not talk to anybody.

Because really your job is to entertain people, give them some nice background music for about an hour.

And so being that it's background music, obviously your sound level, your volume, you don't want to make that too loud. So if you're like a metal band, well, you're gonna have to tone it down.

And so in a common, you know, configuration for this would be either like a classical group or a jazz group or acoustic guitar.

You can do like electric guitar as well, but just not too heavy on the distortion. Singing is appropriate too, but like I said, not too loud. and yeah, it's a good time.

I mean, like I said, you just play your music straight down, start to finish. You can take your time in between songs, but not too much time.

That's like one of the big pet peeves that I have is when I see musicians taking too much time between songs. But yeah, it's very relaxed, laid back. Sure, you do have to dress nicely.

Shorts and a t-shirt does not work for these. But the rest of the gig is just super chill and you get paid quite a bit.

So cocktail hours are super appealing and super possible for more musicians than they might think. My specialty is ceremonies, which actually, I don't know, my specialty is ceremony and cocktail hour. I do both.

But I'd say I more often get booked just for ceremony, probably like 60% ceremony. and then 40% ceremony plus cocktail hour.

And so if you've never played a ceremony before, I don't want you to be intimidated by it. But yes, there are some logistics that you have to be aware of.

So the way that I explain it to my couples is exactly the way I would explain it to musicians, which is, you know, if the time that you've printed on your invitations is four o'clock, the majority of your guests will start showing up early, like some of them sure 3 15.

The very anxious ones closer to 3 30. So that's why I suggest musicians, we start playing some background music similar to cocktail hour, but a little bit softer and more romantic Vibes 30 minutes before the actual start time of the ceremony.

And that section of music is called the Prelude music because it's the Prelude to the ceremony. And so yeah, that's usually about eight to ten songs and you just play that down.

And as you get close to the time that's printed on the invitation, that's when we as musicians have to be paying attention and seeing if the wedding party, aka the bridesmaids and the groomsmen, the ring bearer and the flower girl are lining up behind the audience.

Because that is, you know, typically when they will start to process down the aisle. They'll walk down the aisle in a line.

They'll go slowly, kind of a little bit choreographed, where a bridesmaid will be paired up with a groomsmen, and they'll walk arm in arm.

And the photographer will take pictures of each of the couples as they walk down.

And so once that last person arrives, that's when we fade out the music and then switch over to a different song for the procession of the bride or the second newlywed.

And that is just a little bit of a timing thing that you have to watch out for and very quickly transition from the previous song to this song. That way you don't keep the bride waiting.

But it's not that difficult. It's just pay attention and then, you know, change your music. Sure, that takes some practice, but you really do get used to it.

And if you're able to do this, it's very lucrative. And so again, we're timing the bridal procession. with her walking down the aisle.

And once she arrives at the altar, play a couple more seconds of music, but then fade it out so that she's not waiting and the guests aren't waiting for you to finish your song to actually start the ceremony.

So after you fade that out, then the officiant takes over. And I do not play when the officiant is talking. That way everybody can hear what they're saying.

And then we're just kind of waiting, so don't really go on your phone.

If you have to, then just kind of hide it, you know, but pay attention because, you know, as you've planned with the couple beforehand, they may or may not be doing a unity candle ceremony in the middle of their wedding.

So this is just something to be aware of that there are possibly some other things in the middle of the ceremony where you might want to play some music.

So unity candle, that is typically when the couple will light a candle using two other candles. just to represent their coming together, their union.

There are some variations of that, such as a sand ceremony or a tree planting ceremony. But this section I often play music in because otherwise there's awkward silence while the couple plants a tree.

And that takes usually about 30 seconds to a minute of music. So again, you're not going to play the entire song here.

And then again, it's a waiting game because after that, the couple will exchange their vows. They will exchange rings, put them on each other's fingers.

Then the officiant will say, by the power invested in me, by the state of Colorado or whatever your state is, I now pronounce you married. You may kiss.

The couple kisses, but do not play music yet. This is a rookie mistake that I've made a couple times. Don't play music while they kiss because afterwards the officiant has more to say.

They will say, ladies and gentlemen, introducing for the very first time, the newlyweds. that is your cue to play the music. And so, yeah, we don't want to jump the gun on that.

But once they say those words and introduce the couple, that's your cue to play the recessional song, which is, you know, a song the couple picks, typically more energetic than others that just they walk back up the aisle, too, and the bridesmaids and groomsmen follow.

And then I typically play a couple more songs as the rest of the audience. leaves the ceremony site to go to cocktail hour.

Or if I am playing cocktail hour, I will just finish up that recessional song and then move my body and my instrument over to wherever cocktail hour is.

That's ceremony and cocktail hour. And they're really not that hard once you get the hang of it.

And it's okay if your first couple of weddings feel awkward and uncomfortable and that you feel nervous going into it.

I felt that way too. You know, it's totally normal. It's a new situation. But when it comes down to it, it just becomes another gig.

And sure, we're gonna put our own individual energy into each of these, and we're gonna get to know the couple, and we're gonna work with their wedding planner and their DJ and, you know, meet some new people.

And the ceremony is gonna be totally unique. But as professionals, we have to be consistent in how we approach these. but you get there. It takes time, it takes practice.

And as long as you don't have any major screw ups on your first couple of weddings, then you'll get those reviews and get that reputation that enables you to do a lot more of them, charge higher prices, things like that.

So that's what I'll be doing today is a ceremony and then a cocktail hour in a different location. I called the DJ. and asked if I could plug into his PA system for the cocktail hour. And he said yes.

So we're going to scope out that situation before the ceremony. And then ceremony providing my own Bose S1 Pro. And gonna play that. It'll be a good time.

So that is all I got for you guys today. By the way, if you're interested in my help booking your first wedding, reach out to me. I love helping musicians book these gigs because They obviously pay a lot.

There are opportunities for you to play music, which is so fun. There's a different audience every single time.

You'll develop relationships with event planners and venue owners, and they'll start to really fall in love with your music.

And yeah, I just think it's great. So if you're interested in my help, book a free chat with me. Go to fulltimemusicacademy.com/call and book a chat with me.

You'll have to watch my masterclass first, but It's a great masterclass. We'll give you an overview of what we're talking about, and then we will take it from there.

So that's fulltimemusicacademy.com/call, and we'll chat.

All right, thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Giggling Musician Podcast.

Remember, "Your music will not market itself!"