Craig Lawrence Band

We hired the Craig Lawrence Band to play our wedding last summer – the sextet – and they sounded wonderful! Extremely talented with a large song list to choose from. Craig was available, friendly, easy-to-work with, and answered many of our questions when we were inquiring about booking them. After we booked, Craig even talked to our venue to coordinate logistics of setting up well ahead of our summer wedding. There were a few miscommunications, however, and things I would change if I had the opportunity to do it again. Issues listed below: 1). The band took several breaks the night of the wedding (which they should!) but I misunderstood what Craig meant when he said he could supply music for the breaks. I assumed (wrongly) that it would be recorded songs from the band that they would play while they were on break. It wasn’t. It was instrumental break-type music, and I thought it really slowed the party down. Everyone would leave the dance floor, of course, and it felt like the party really lost momentum. This of course happened several times over the course of the night. Craig did mention that we could supply our own music for breaks, so I would definitely recommend doing that. I would have if I had known what the break music would have been, but honestly I was just so relieved to have something taken off my plate during the wedding planning phase. But put in the extra effort because I think it would be worth it! We made a list of songs we wanted played at the wedding, and I don’t think we heard even half of the list, which was also a little disappointing. I wanted to give Craig and the band flexibility to build the playlist for the night, but I think we chose too many options because some of the songs that I would have really loved to hear weren’t played. 2). We also had Craig MC the wedding, but I’d recommend investing the money in having a day-of wedding coordinator to keep people on schedule. It was a combination between our band and the venue that got us really off track. The venue never told the band when to eat, so they were late getting to dinner. But then all the guests were done with dinner and the band was on break eating. Toasts were supposed to take place then and Craig was supposed to call up the toasts. But we were all just kind of waiting around (it seemed like that to me and my dear friends that were supposed to give toasts but I’m sure other guests were just happy to be chatting). By the time the band got back, we noticed the champagne wasn’t out so that was a bigger delay in the toasts (venue’s mistake). So all together, we got ourselves 45 min off schedule which contributed to not hearing as many songs as I would have liked. In the grand scheme, these “issues” are minor. We all still had a blast rocking out to Craig and the band, and they sounded really, really good. Many guests were gushing about them the next day, and that’s great to hear when you spend a pretty penny to hire the crew. I recommend working with Craig and the gang for your event, but do keep these suggestions in mind for an even better event!