Will Taylor & Strings Attached

I had my reservations about booking a live band, and unfortunately all of my fears came true. Let me start by saying the string duo at the ceremony were great -- I have no issues there. But to be completely honest, I would never recommend the dance variety band. They had me fill out the wedding planner to indicate the schedule for the band -- we indicated what time our wedding party would be entering and we also told them that the bride and groom would go straight into our first dance. However, the band had no idea they were supposed to play our first dance and didn't know what song it was. Furthermore, they weren't even set up yet, so our wedding party ended up waiting in the hallway until they finished. I will say that our wedding pictures show only three band members present and playing our first song. We finally made our entrance and did our first dance. We go to sit down, and dinner service kicks off. Rather than continue to play music, the band disappears entirely. We go most of the night without live music. The worst part is that out of the four hours of service, plus the extra cocktail hour, for which we had paid... the band probably played maybe 45 minutes to an hour total. I don't know if they even got through all 10 songs we requested. And even when they did play, they weren't bad, but they weren't that great either. We actually found out a week before the wedding that most of the songs listed on their website were not available for them to play. The actual list of songs we got to choose from pretty much only included Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and Stevie Wonder. While I love all of these, "Communication Breakdown" isn't exactly a song that gets people up and dancing. And while I know we agreed to provide plated meals for the band, we didn't intend for them to make such use of our bar. Every time I looked up, I saw a band member or two grabbing a drink and then walking out of the reception site. I don't know where the band spent most of the evening, but it certainly wasn't entertaining our guests. Finally, and I can't believe I have to say this, but some of the band members should really think about how to conduct themselves professionally when they are at a wedding. One of their band members, in discussing how to use the microphone for speeches with me, decided it was appropriate to make a crude joke about oral sex, complete with obscene gestures. I didn't find it entertaining to begin with, but the fact that a table of elderly family members were right behind us when he decided to do this made it even less humorous. What kills me is that we paid so much to get a live band, but ended up with mostly canned iPod music. Even multiple guests commented on how absent the band was from the reception, and even that they didn't play much at the cocktail hour either. Will Taylor was for the most part unavailable during the planning process. After the wedding, my husband tried to discuss the matter privately with him, but Will was completely unprofessional, trying to make us feel bad about the fact that they didn't provide the service that we paid for. He agreed to issue a refund for the service the band failed to provide but then continued to dodge emails and calls after the fact, thus resulting in this review. I really thought this band would be the highlight of our wedding. In reality, they caused us so much needless stress and are the only, ONLY thing I would change about our wedding day. Avoid at all costs!