What to Send in Your Enquiry
Booking live music for a private event is straightforward. Four things get you an accurate answer quickly:
The date. Including start time if you know it. Saturdays in spring and fall go first.
The location. Venue name and city. That determines travel and load-in.
Rough duration. Two hours, three hours, or “ceremony plus cocktail hour”. An estimate is fine.
The kind of event. A wedding ceremony, a backyard birthday, and a corporate reception each need a different approach to volume and repertoire.
Anything else. Song requests, a run sheet, whether it’s indoors or outdoors, is helpful but can follow.
Travel Radius
Austin plus 100 miles. That covers Buda, Kyle, San Marcos, New Braunfels, Dripping Springs, Georgetown, Wimberley, and Marble Falls, along with everything closer in. Further out is worth asking about.
What’s Provided
Guitar, vocals, and a PA appropriate to the space. What’s needed from the venue is access to power and a spot to set up, usually a corner or the edge of the space rather than anywhere central.
If the venue already has a sound system, using it is often simpler. That gets settled during booking so there are no surprises on the day.
The one detail people forget
Outdoor events need more thought than indoor ones. Wind, distance, and open air all eat sound, and it’s much easier to plan for that in advance than to solve it while guests are arriving.
Typical Setups
| Event type | Usual shape | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wedding ceremony | 20–30 min | Processional, recessional, and prelude while guests are seated |
| Cocktail hour | 60–90 min | Background level, guests are talking |
| Reception / party | 2–3 hrs with breaks | Energy builds through the evening |
| Corporate event | 2 hrs | Ambient, professional, unobtrusive |
Break timing is agreed in advance so it lines up with speeches, dinner, or whatever else is on your run sheet.
Song Requests
Very normal, particularly for a first dance, a processional, or a couple of songs that matter to you. Send them early enough that the arrangement can be worked out properly, a full-band recording adapted for one guitar and one voice takes real preparation, and it sounds like it when that preparation happens.
Repertoire generally leans classic rock, coffeehouse covers, and feel-good favorites. More detail is in what songs I play.
How Far Ahead to Book
Weddings are the tight ones. Popular Saturdays in spring and fall get taken first, and if you have a specific date it’s worth asking about it early even if the rest of the plan isn’t settled. A held date costs nothing to confirm later.
Smaller parties and corporate events are usually more flexible, and a few weeks is often workable. Holiday season is the exception, December fills the way wedding season does.
If your date is already taken, you’ll be told straight away rather than being strung along while other options are explored.
What Happens on the Day
Arrival is usually 45 to 60 minutes before the start, which allows time for a quiet setup and a sound check before guests are in the room. Setup is compact: a guitar, a mic, and a small PA in a corner or at the edge of the space.
During the event, volume gets adjusted as the room fills, an empty room and a full one need different settings, and the difference is larger than most people expect. Breaks are taken at the agreed points, usually with quiet background music running so the space doesn’t fall silent.
Pack-down is quick and quiet. Nobody wants a musician coiling cables during the speeches.
Booking
Enquiries go through the contact form or straight to the phone. Event booking is entirely separate from lesson subscriptions and gets its own reply, usually with availability and a quote in the first response.
The full overview is on the live music for private events page.