Customer Reviews

The Musician's Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings

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I found 'The Musician's Guide to Brides' to be an extremely good reference. It is very thorough and almost every imaginable situation is covered. I especially liked the checklists and the examples of contracts. Every thing about it helps the musician to be organized and prepared for every possible eventuality. It's also an entertaining read with lots of anecdotes of the extreme and crazy situations that musician's sometimes find themselves in. I don't do many weddings, but hope to do more, so this book will be very handy once I start getting more wedding gigs. There's also good information in general which applies to more than just weddings.

Anne Roos' book provides excellent tips for both beginning and veteran music professionals. Her book captures the essence of professionalism and how that applies to career wedding musicians. Many of the common sense pointers are particularly useful for performers new to the field, such as maintaining collegiality with wedding coordinators, booking agents, and other musicians. This book also includes a wealth of information about how to get started, how to set fees, and how to promote your business. "Musician's Guide to Brides" also stays current by addressing appropriate uses of technology for communication and promotion, and includes a caution about using social networking sites such as MySpace. As Web 2.0 tools and other technologies change and evolve, it would be good to have an online companion resource to the book, to stay abreast of these "eTrends." Veteran musicians can also benefit from the updated insights this guide provides!

Written by Anne Roos, who has played the Celtic harp at weddings for more than twenty-five years, The Musician's Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings lives up to its title with solid, practical advice on everything from creating a wedding-friendly musical repertoire to writing a performance agreement, advertising one's services, exhibiting at bridal fairs, closing a sale with the bride, working with the mother of the bride/the wedding coordinator/booking agents, avoiding common problems and pitfalls, dealing with difficult people (or "bridezillas!") and much more. Of especial value is the chapter that details how to ensure one is promptly and properly paid! Emphasizing professionalism above all - particularly the importance of a having a contract that spells out one's obligations, being honest about what one can or can't do, and maintaining one's cool even when the environment at a wedding may get rambunctious - The Musician's Guide to Brides is an absolute "must-have" for any musician interested in playing for weddings.

This is a great, detailed, "How to" book that can help any musician break into and be successful playing at weddings. The key point here is that you are not the star, the bride is the star, bow down to the bride and you will be all set. Everything from dealing with the wedding party, creating your demo, preperation, avoiding common problems that you may have never thought of and communication. Even if you are a seasoned veteran this book will give you new ideas and help you expand your business. If you are new to this industry this is a great book that can help you from beginning to end.

I recently bought the book "The Musician's Guide to Brides." and found it full of tips that will make playing wedding gigs more enjoyable. I haven't played at a wedding yet but plan to in the future and this book will help me have the knowledge and confidence to do a good job.

I have a copy of Anne Roos' new book "The Musician's Guide to Brides."

It is a 321 page, user friendly, easy to read guide filled with tips

covering most everything you need to know when playing for a wedding.

It discusses advertising, communicating with the bride (or client),

essentials to include in your contract, preparing for the wedding day,

necessary equipment and mindset for performing, how to deal with

unexpected things that may come up and follow up after the wedding.

There are checklists and forms to help you make sure that you're

organized and that you've covered every little detail that you may not

otherwise think of so the day will go smoothly. Anne shares her own and

other's experiences to help you be well prepared for anything.

This book is for anyone providing music for a wedding or similar event. It's a must for a novice and there are so many tips that even an experienced person could pick up something new.

I highly recommend it!

I recently received this book as a gift. I would recommend this to any musician either starting out or a pro. This book is filled with hundreds of tips.

This book is a fabulous resource for would be wedding musicians. What to play is pretty easy, but how to play is another story. Anne Roos has put together a nifty handbook on the how of wedding performances that should be in every musician's bookshelf.

This book assumes that every wedding musician is completely stupid. Do you really need to waste space in a book stating that I should check the FAQ's in my email program before using email? Do we have to be instructed on how to maneuver ourselves to avoid wind? We're also told that roadies should bring homework to stay busy and that we shouldn't get drunk or use illegal drugs while on the job.

I will admit there are some useful tips, such as using news releases to enhance business and what PR jargon to use and what to avoid.

Despite some useful tips, when it comes down to it, if you are a violinist who needs this book to inform you that "Pachelbel's Canon" is popular at wedding ceremonies or you're a DJ who needs to be informed that "YMCA" might be a good choice at a reception, then you need far more than this book. You need a job doing something else.