A lot of people told us the band is the most important decision you’ll make about the wedding (except maybe the spouse). People will forget bad flowers, bad food, etc., and if you have a bad photographer, you’ll still get other pictures. But if you have a boring wedding because the music is bad or inappropriate, people will remember that, so we wanted to make sure we got the best band we could. Problem was that we were planning our wedding from a few hundred miles away, so our trips to New Haven to interview various people (photographer, florist, caterer etc.) were limited. However, as Yale graduates, we had heard the Bales Gitlin Band at the Yale Commencement Ball twice, and we knew that they were 1. An excellent band and 2. Able to get a group of hugely varied ages and musical tastes all dancing and having a great time. So, we decided to book them.
Best decision we could have made.
Ginny and the rest of the band were phenomenal. We were told by many guests that it was the best wedding they’d ever been to and the most fun wedding they’d ever been to. The band had my college friends, my grandmothers, and everyone in between dancing and having a great time. They had a huge list of songs, so any songs we wanted, they played. But more importantly, they seemed to know just the right songs to play, and time to play them, to get people moving. Couple other things that stand out as being different from other bands at other weddings:
1. They played at an appropriate volume. They filled the room with music, but you could still talk to people. 2. They did an a capella performance while we cut our cake that was really nice, and we got a lot of compliments on that. 3. They are VERY good at ‘managing’ a wedding. In other words, the things we were worrying about, like the flow of people from room to room, staying on schedule, and all the logistic stuff you don’t want to worry about during your wedding, they took care of perfectly. 4. They are very good about responding to emails. (just a sidenote, not necessarily different from bands I’ve heard at other weddings).
I assume most people have stopped reading by now, but I obviously would recommend the Bales-Gitlin Band over a DJ or any other band at any wedding I’ve been to. A pleasure to deal with, and they put on an incredible wedding.