Serenade Events

The music for our wedding went off without a hitch! The musicians and Jeff Strand were absolutely amazing with communication, the music selection, and the ease of payment. They made our wedding day so much more special and the guests loved the music. We would definitely hire them again for an event. Note (for those who said communication was lacking): after you have hired Serenade Events, make sure to communicate with Serenade Events via email instead of through the Knot. If you do, you will get quick responses.

I made a reservation with Serenade Events and paid in advance. However, when I tried to contact Jeff through text/email, I noticed he was not responsive, which was quite frustrating. After coming across negative reviews on various platforms mentioning Jeff's lack of responsiveness and the subpar quality of the musicians, with one even arriving with a broken music stand, I became very concerned. It also came to my attention that Jeff outsources his musicians and recruits them through Facebook, resulting in a lack of regular collaboration and familiarity with each other's musical styles. As a result of these issues, I decided to cancel my reservation two and a half weeks before the event and opted for a different, more reputable service. Despite reaching out to Jeff for a refund, I received no response to my messages, leading us to dispute the charge with our credit card company. Jeff did not provide an invoice and simply took my payment upfront, exemplifying unprofessional conduct. I strongly advise against booking with this service.

We had high hopes for the violinist we hired from Serenade events for a small intimate wedding ceremony but we were gravely disappointed. At first, everything seemed great when we started talking to them and they were very responsive. But after we paid the deposit, things started to go very badly. Serenade events became unresponsive for 2 weeks as we desperately tried to contact them to organize logistics for the wedding. Only after threatening to dispute with the credit card companies did they finally respond. When we asked about what the violinist would need for the wedding, they said only a chair (which turned out be a lie). They also would not tell us the full name of the violinist either. When the day of the event came, things didn’t go well. First, as it turns out the violinist had an electric violin which required a power source. We were not notified of this before. We had to scramble to find long extension cords to power the violin. When he started playing, it was clear that the violinist was not experienced at all. He kept looking up the notes for the song he was playing and the quality of his playing was very poor. There were a lot of gaps in between the songs and when we moved inside for dinner, the music was incredibly loud and we could barely hear the violin. Then after he was done playing and we were at dinner, the violinist was supposed to leave but he was waiting by the exit for almost an hour. Turns out he didn’t even have a car! He literally Ubered 100 miles from LA to Palm Springs and was struggling to find an Uber back to the city. We felt so bad for him my father gave him $100 and drove him somewhere more convenient to get picked up. This put a sour end to an otherwise beautiful wedding. We were all buzzing from the beautiful ceremony Also, the violinist indicated that he had no point of contact upon arrival and he had difficulty finding the venue, this is after we provided the main coordinator to Serenade Events. We do not blame the violinist but Serenade Events, the company that hired him. PS I had a terrible feeling bout them from the beginning but gave them a chance because they seemed so responsive in the beginning.

We hired Serenade Events to play for our guest arrival, ceremony, and for the social hour. Their string quartet was beautiful, they made a request for me they didn't have in their music, and they played a bunch of our favorite songs during the social hour. We absolutely would recommend them, the whole thing was very easy and beautiful.

Really fun to have a live violin at our wedding. They played so beautifully and Jeff and Jessica made everything easy for us. Thank you!

I booked Serenade events back in September for my March wedding. We hired one violinist for our small wedding. Communication was great in the beginning but there was absolutely no communication aside from payments unless I initiated it. At the beginning of February I reached out for a list of music they claim to provide so we could finalize our music. I received a response in the middle of February with the list and a form to fill out regarding our event info and song selection. Once this was submitted, I never received further communication. As a bride, I would highly recommend skipping this vendor. The violinist was the only thing I was worried about not showing up the day of my wedding just because there was no communication. We requested a couple songs that weren't on their provided list and were never told if they would be possible. The violinist showed up with a broken music stand and asked if we had another one or something else she could use - totally not prepared. As I walked down the aisle, I heard multiple squawks and missed notes - these were songs that were on their provided list. We are able to laugh about it now, but honestly it was so disappointing for the price and the stress it caused.

Serenade Events was so easy and the strings were amazing! They definitely had the easiest vendor process we had, we got to fill out a form for all our songs and music and their music list had SO many songs.

really easy to work with and played so beautifully. we just had to fill out one form and give them our music, probably our easiest vendor!

Awesome! One of our favorite vendors for sure

Really beautiful. They were so professional and easy to work with, the music is BEAUTIFUL

Serenade Events was a beautiful part of my daughters wedding. They played all her requests and kept playing during the reception and before the ceremony too. They were probably the easiest vendor to work with and just did everything we asked. Loved it!

Amazing! We had a piano and violin come out and play for our wedding and as guests entered, it was so beautiful! We made a list for them to play from, I was amazed at how many songs they had, and they even played a requests for us. Really awesome addition!

I hired Serenade Events in January 2023 for my wedding in April ‘23. I was in communication with Jeff throughout the process. I chose to forego other wedding expenses so we could have live music for ceremony and cocktail hour using music that was special to us- it was my top priority and what I was most looking forward to. Right before the ceremony we realized the cellist hadn’t shown. We tried calling and no answer. I received an email from Jeff less than an hour before they were supposed to show saying their cellist was ill and that they’d tried to find another musician but would be unable to make it and that they would refund our initial deposit and the total we finished paying that week. What? Seriously? That is an insane thing to do to someone on their wedding. We had to delay the ceremony an hour so I could make a playlist, find adapters, set up speakers, and ask a guest to play youtube videos in the right order for our cues. 100 guests were just waiting out there. It was a nightmare and everyone was so stressed out. Cellist was scheduled for cocktail hour too so we had to have a guest play random music off of my laptop for that as well. Far cry from the curated playlist I spent weeks developing and months spent ensuring they could provide it. I wish I could go back in time to hire literally anyone else. I’m still in disbelief of how this was handled. Not even a call- an email less than an hour before the ceremony. If they had given me even two hours notice, I could’ve asked my musician father to bring his guitar. I could’ve asked someone to bring something. Instead they chose to ruin someone’s wedding. I’m sure we would’ve loved their musicians- it saddens me to see so many great reviews knowing that’s what we would’ve had. If Jeff had time to email me then perhaps he had time to come on down to the wedding himself to replace his musician, and maybe had time to inform me in the morning instead of right before the ceremony? Directing this at Jeff since he never responded to me: You gave me zero time. What bride do you know is checking her email before they walk down the aisle? After the wedding I responded to Jeff’s email by telling him how their actions impacted us and how this was a truly awful thing to do someone on their wedding day after hiring them months ahead of time. Didn’t even get a response. No hard feelings to the ill cellist. I’m sure he’s a great musician and hard worker. I hope Serenade Events feels a semblance of shame but it doesn’t really seem like it. UPDATE: Yesterday 2/8/24, Serenade Events disputed this review on WeddingWire and had it removed. Sketchy practices to remove negative reviews when they’re 100% factual. I don’t know why they would dispute it and act like I wasn’t a client when I wrote down exactly what happened that day. I have screenshots of the contract, the communications, the email saying they’re not showing up, professional photos of me scrambling to get new music together, and photos that show they are obviously NOT at the wedding. I’ll be having it reinstated with all this documentation. Now that I know they’re hiding reviews, I plan on reviewing them on any other site they use for reviews. Good job, guys.

We had such a wonderful experience with Serenade Events! Their musicians played beautifully and they took all our requests, they played early for us when our guests were coming in and the ceremony.

My husband and I booked Serenade Events for our wedding in August 2023. We booked them a year in advance after seeing so many positive reviews. They were initially responsive and accommodating, particularly in learning a specific song we wanted as part of our ceremony, for which we were grateful. However, even though we booked a string quartet one year in advance, only 3 musicians showed up on our wedding day. We had zero communication from Jeff about this, the musicians simply told our wedding planner that there wasn't a fourth. Jeff did not communicate with me or my wedding planner before, during, or after our wedding. He did not issue a price adjustment nor did he apologize. When we followed up with him, he initially responded to our thank you but then did not respond to our request to have a partial refund, nor did he acknowledge the error until we followed up multiple times. Once he did acknowledge the error, he agreed to issue a partial refund, then did not do so. We had to continue to follow up via email and text and we suspect the only reason he didn't ghost us is because our wedding planner ultimately contacted him as well. Given that she is well-respected and connected in the San Diego area, we believe that is the only reason we heard from him at all and ultimately finally got our refund. I will say that the musicians were awesome and ultimately it did not ruin our day; however, it was completely shady for him to send us something other than what we booked ON our wedding day, with zero communication and accountability about it. COUPLES BEWARE, would NOT recommend.

The worst! My sons wedding was Dec 2 checked with them a week prior all set to go is what they said, paid full amount Dec 2 came no music! They did give us a full refund but no communication, no text, no email until after the event …excuse? We were sick so unacceptable!

We hired Serenade Events to provide a violinist for our wedding ceremony on 11.24.2023. We contracted for a single violinist for 1.5 hours at $500 and paid the $207 deposit. Jeff was responsive until he received my deposit. After that when I emailed a month before the event - no reply. A week went by and I followed up by voicemail and text. No reply- After 10 days I received an email which disregarded the playlist I sent originally, the same playlist I vetted before hiring. This email came within minutes of the invoice for final payment. I also requested to know who the local artist would be, as Serenade is in Arizona and we are in Albuquerque. Jeff refused to disclose even the name or bio of musician. I requested that he arrange a call with himself, musician and me so I could hear a person on the other end of the phone and he could keep the musicians contact info private. He refused by not replying. A week before the wedding I made the choice to cancel and we compiled a play list through a speaker. NOT what I dreamed of, as the music played a very important part of what was important to us. Our wedding party had their handpicked songs and that was comforting, even though it was through a speaker. I cancelled because paying someone who lacks the common courtesy of clear communication and being pretty sure we were getting SCAMMED, felt like the best decision. Jeff if you even try to put this back on me rest assured I will reply with a catalogue of dates and times to prove your lack of communication. Your email signature says 24-48 hours (business days), I waited for responses with that in mind, YOU failed: If you want to risk your special event with a risky and more than likely frustrating experience, please hire Serenade events. BUYERS BEWARE

Jeff at Serenade Events is professional and easy to communicate with. We were looking for a string quartet for our destination wedding in Las Vegas (We're a couple from CA). They had a large repertoire of songs to choose from and we knew that we had to book them! They showed up on time, played our requested songs, and really set the vibe for our guests during our ceremony and cocktail hour. We really enjoyed having them there at our wedding. I highly recommend Serenade Events to anyone who is looking for live musicians for their event!

Repeated emails to Jeff requesting a call after booking were never returned. He responded to email sometimes several days after the email but I could never reach by phone or text with questions. As I could not an another string group I crossed my fingers. 2 of the 3 showed up, one said she was called the night before to play the other was late. I would not recommend .

I do not recommend this vendor. We recently booked a piano cello duo for our wedding ceremony and cocktail hour. I've split the review into two parts.  THE MUSICIANS: They arrived as scheduled and performed the setlist we asked for. They sounded very nice and our guests enjoyed them. They were a bit low volume during cocktail hour, and some of their tempos were quite slow. Overall we enjoyed having them and the ambience they lent.  THE MANAGEMENT / BOOKING: I am very disappointed with my experience. When I originally inquired, the owner was responsive and easy to work with. After about 4 emails back and forth we settled on a timeframe and I agreed to the named price. I paid my deposit and said I would reach out closer to our date with more details. I did so in early October (the wedding date was at the end of the month), finished our payments, and received some more responses - then nothing. I went 25 days with NO answer on confirmation of our timeline, song selection, and other logistical questions. I called, texted, and emailed. Finally, at 6:15 AM the morning of the wedding, I received a one sentence response that we were good to go. Naturally I was fearful that I had been scammed. Even a one word reply weeks earlier would have prevented all of this. I cannot in good faith recommend booking this vendor when this is the way they conduct their business. Truly disappointing as the musicians themselves are not to blame.

We hired a Pop Duo with a female vocalist and a male guitar player through Serenade Events to provide the music for our wedding ceremony. After viewing their performance on Serenade Events website and falling in love with her voice, his guitar, and their acoustic sound, we contacted owner Jeff Strand to book the duo. Jeff confirmed their availability on our date, and we made the deposit immediately to secure them months in advance of our date. The rate was over $1000 for one hour, but they sounded amazing, and we were happy to have them provide the music during our guests' arrival, the cocktail hour, and, more importantly, the processional music as we walked down the aisle to the songs we had selected. We were particularly excited for this duo as they were to frame the overall ambiance of the wedding by opening the ceremony. We emailed Jeff asking for confirmation that this would be the SPECIFIC duo who would be joining us, and he CONFIRMED in writing that they would be. It was odd that he would not reveal their names, but with so many details to have to attend to, we decided not to let it bother us.. though it did bother us! As we started approaching our date, Jeff did not reach out once to inquire about any details.. arrival time, schedule, or playlist. In fact, he was not even responding to our outreach. His communication became evasive, and 9 days before our wedding, we informed him that we would be canceling our contract and demanding our deposit back if we didn't hear back from him right away. We started scrambling for another artist at such a late date; however, once he knew his payment was on the line, he reappeared and stayed in communication with our planner. We provided him with our playlist, specifically curated for this male/female duo based on the sound of her voice and his guitar. He said the songs we had selected were right up their alley. We paid him the balance in advance of the due date while still feeling dubious. We came to realize his scam and betrayal just fifteen minutes before walking down the aisle when we learned that he not only changed the artists on us, but sent two amateur guys whom we had never seen, heard of, approved, or hired, and nowhere near the sound, quality, and performance of the original male/female duo we had actually hired. This deceitful bait and switch was outrageous. Two random dudes just showed up at our wedding. Jeff thought it was perfectly acceptable to change the musical artist on a couple's wedding day without their prior knowledge or consent, a day that is meticulously planned and organized for nearly a year. You would think surely he would contact us to provide an explanation, an apology... something! SOMETHING! But nothing! NOTHING!!! He has gone into hiding and has not responded to any of our messages. We have disputed his charges with our credit card company, and he is under investigation. The dispute rep stated that he was ghosting them as well. They encouraged us to write our review to help other couples avoid this shady company. We would be remiss if we didn’t share our experience as a tale of caution to unsuspecting couples. No couple should have to experience this kind of deceit, laden with stress, anxiety, and agitation just minutes before walking down the aisle. Jeff Strand from Serenade Events is dishonest, unethical, deceitful, unprofessional, and quite simply a fraud and a cheat.

The violinist did not follow written instructions about which songs to play at two key moments (which song to play during the bride walk down aisle and which song to play during the father-daughter dance). Generally played well but made a few mistakes. The violinist was on time which was nice, but I just wish they would have read the very short instructions I wrote when I submitted the song list about those two moments. Not worth the cost in my opinion.

What a beautiful addition to our special day! The string trio from Serenade Events played so beautiful and played all my requests for no extra ❤️. They were one of our easiest vendors throughout the lead up and were so helpful. Can't recommend them enough!

Working with Serenade Events was so seamless. Our violinist was professional, so talented, and made our wedding so special. The team had no problem playing the songs we requested and adjusted on short notice to a time change. The performance added so much to the ambience. Highly recommend!

We saw a quartet on their website that we wanted to hire for my stepdaughters wedding. The owner of the company, Jeff told us we would have that specific quartet that we wanted to hire. The quartet was not the same people. The music played was not the music we requested. The group was very average. We do not recommend this service.

I hired a string trio for the hour of guest arrival and ceremony. I was tucked away in the bridal suite for most of that time, so I didn't get to enjoy the music, but I heard from guests that they were lovely. On my walk down the aisle, I was much too distracted to even notice the music, but I was very pleased to hear them playing the requested "Simply the Best" on our recessional. Communication with Jeff was always prompt and simple. This was the most low-maintenance vendor that I hired for my wedding. Something that you'll really appreciate during the last two weeks leading up to the wedding. ;-)

Amazing!!! The best musicians ever! We hired Serenade Events for our Wedding in Santa Monica and we can't say enough about how much we loved them! They made the day by far, their String Quartet was amazing and so professional. Their music book is HUGE, they played every song we wanted, even a request for my entrance. Jeff was super helpful and always got back to us right away. Definitely hire Serenade Events for your special day

We loved having Serenade Events at our wedding!! Their string players were so amazing. They got back to us so quick for everything and they played all our requests. I'd recommend them to everyone I know.

Serenade Events provided our ceremony music for our wedding in Fallbrook, CA on May 30th, 2022. The musicians were outstanding and provided the perfect accompaniment to our elegant outdoor wedding. They were very easy to work with and we loved them so much. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for music for their event.

We had a great experience with Serenade Events! The violin player was amazing and so beautiful in our ceremony. Jeff was a big help getting everything organized and they added such a beautiful background to our wedding. Thank you again!!

Thank you for helping make our wedding day so special!! The string quartet played for our ceremony and cocktail hour. Everyone was so professional and easy to work with, and they sounded amazing! Definitely recommend them.