How long should we have a sax player for at our wedding reception?

Maybe an hour no more

The Sax is a great addition to any Duo, Dj or Live Band. Sax can play beautiful melodies for the softer music during canapes and dinner, and then amp up the energy for the dance music. It is always a big hit!

A popular option is to start the day with a duo for ceremony and canapes and bring in the Saxaphone player from the start of the reception - and then this way if you are wanting the duo to change over to Dj for the dance floor, the Sax is fantastic alongside the Dj as well. 

Alternativiely if you are looking for something a little bigger you could start the day with a duo for ceremony, bring in the Sax player to increase the duo to trio for canapés and then increase the band size again for Reception :) 

If you are using the Sax as a stand alone instrument, possibly with some backings or another live performer as accompaniment then during the first part of the reception is a perfect place. If they are a part of the band then the Sax can be included and featured as part of the dinner sets and the rock/dance sets as well. The reception can roughly be divided into 1/2 dinner/speeches etc and then 1/2 Dance music so whatever the length of your reception is just divide by 2 for the standalone feature style of performance or the whole night as an addition to the band. There are also players that do a DJ service as well as different variations of these.

Standard set would be have them play during your bridal entrance and then jump on two DJ sets at the end when it comes to dance time. Otherwise if it's a band, they'll generally go in and out of band sets.

Hi, it sounds like you might have something specific in mind, but I will do my best to provide an answer for you.

A sax player can add incredible tone to any band, and we can certainly provide an excellent sax player for your wedding. Many songs can be given extra soul and excitement through the use of a sax, but the duration that they play within a song, will depend on the nature of the song chosen.   Often sax players take solos within the song, or add extra harmony to various sections. 

The length of time you have a sax player at a wedding ultimately depends on how many songs the band has arranged for them to play in. Our sax player is used for probably 50% of our band songs.  The songs they play can be spread throughout the night.  Sax can inject incredible energy into a dance song, so they may be involved towards the dance section of the night in particular. Having said this there are some incredible sax parts in quieter songs such as Baker Street by Gerry Raffety, or Careless Whisper by George Michael.  Great sax players can also perform by themselves, but this is not particularly common.

Perhaps if you could please describe how you envisage the sax player being used at the wedding, we can provide more specific advice.   If it is for a specific song(s) that you want played we can certainly provide better advice.

Kind regards

Simon

There's no right or wrong answer to this.

Some clients have sax during the ceremony, some keep the sax player with the cocktail band or through dinner music, some want sax with the DJ or band for the party, so its a question of what are you looking to get out of it.

At Rocket Entertainment, we generally utilise all the hands we have on deck as much as possible, and have tried to shape our packages around the knowledge that couples dont know what they want untill they get much closer to the final stages and have finer run sheets from all their vendors.

We have all day packages that permit clients to add any musicians in or out at any time, so then your not feeling obligated to use a sax during the ceremony just because you paid for it if it doesnt fit the vibe, instead waiting for cocktail hour and then after the dance floor opens as an example.

Personally, and this is just me, but sax on top of a traditional wedding duo elevates things tenfold during cocktail hour or live dinner music and really increases classines of the performance in my eyes

During formalities, I tend to find that DJ makes the most sense, permitting stopping and starting at rapid notice easily as things come up or change unexpectedly, which can and does happen.

Once the dance floor opens, I personally love having sax there on the dance floor interacting with guests. The musician will require breaks and wont play for 6hrs nonstop without a breather though, and that works well to be able to bring in the sax to get the dance floor moving, and then squeeze in some slow dances while they break only to have sax help hype up the dance floor again.

If your working with a percussionist as well, the interaction you can get between live sax and percussion on a DJ set is amazing, so, dont schedule them to perform appart, make aure you have overlap for maximum hype :)

But above all else, whats your vision. DJs and musicians as well as other vendors can tell you what we see working well, and its wise to litsen to that advise, but, your vision should play the biggest role in how that day plays out, because theres lots of right answers and vendors are always willing to help bring that vision to life, even if its not what they normally do. 

I would suggest 2 - 2.5 hours! Some players might have a minimum time that they play for. 

This is a great balance of not too long or too short.

Enjoy!

It really depends on how many sets you want them to play for.

Eg:

Bride and Groom Entry

First Dance 

During main dance bracket mixing it up with your DJ/band.

If it is all the above I would suggest having them there all night.

If it is only 1 or 2 of the sections above ask them to quote you only on the formalities (segments of the night) you want them there for.

I hope this helps.

It's a great question, with the answer depending on a few things.
1) Are you having a sit down dinner or stand-up cocktail style?
2) What music are you wanting to hear?

If it's a sit down dinner, i generally recommend letting your DJ play background music for the first 2-2.5 hours.  The sax player will have more effect as you get closer to the first dance and opening the dancefloor.  It would be worth giving the sax a half hour set before the first dance to help warm up the crowd, then  also playing to the dancefloor later on.

If it's a cocktail style dinner, a sax/DJ combo early in the night can be incredibly effective especially if the music style is a combination smooth rnb, soulful 70s & 80s, funky house, nu disco or a deep house sounds.  These sounds lend themselves perfectly to live sax and work well as background music to get your guests toe tapping and ready to dance later.

Generally a live sax can work well with most styles of music.  If you wanted a lot of acoustic style (think Jack Johnson, Bon Iver, James Arthur, Jason Mraz) music early in the night, it may be worth holding off on the sax until later. 

For more information please contact Spinning Disc Entertainment.  Our DJs are experienced playing with live sax players and would love to help you celebrate your wedding with your friends and family.