Ready To Rock

While you’re swiftly moving on to the favours and food, the band you’ve just booked is getting busy too. Rosie Patrick grabs her backstage pass

Question: ever feel like you’re living in the future?

No, this is not a weird, sci-fi-esque insight into my brain, it is in fact a genuine, wedding-related query. How? Well, when you’re knee-deep in planning, you’ve probably played out the day in your head, in meetings with suppliers and at round after round of shows and exhibitions, until it feels as if the distant date a year from now has all but happened already. And, to make matters worse, all of this starts far, far in advance. Hit from every angle with the advice to ‘get in there early’, you’ve entered into a race with yourself and other couples to snap up every element of the wedding day as fast as possible – especially your band, thanks, largely, to the performers’ jam-packed diaries.

Further down the line there’ll be a lull – at which point you’ll barely remember which act you’ve booked, never mind what your next steps are. “It can be a year between us being booked and turning up to play said booking,” laughs Chris Mackinnon of Edinburgh band Midnight Specials. So what happens during this long gap? What are the band doing? What are you supposed to be doing? Let’s get you reacquainted with the here and now, and give you back your grip on reality.

DOWN TO YOU