Booking Terms and Conditions - Wedding Clients

Thanks so much for choosing Oberon Lane as your wedding entertainment supplier. We operate on a good faith policy here at Oberon Lane and will always endeavour to the right thing by our couples and keep you as happy, well prepared and excited for your big day as possible.

To ensure that all parties are organised and well informed in the lead up to your wedding, here’s a few terms and conditions we’ve established that will apply to your booking:

The general terms and conditions of booking with Oberon Lane are:

Payments & Refunds:

To secure the date, we require a 20% deposit to be paid ASAP, with the remainder being fixed up minimum two weeks prior to the event date. Without a deposit, a musician is free to take another booking. Once the deposit is received the musicians are then locked in and good to go.

The 20% deposit is fully refundable with cancellation notice of 12+ weeks, but from this point on your deposit is no longer refundable.
4-2 weeks out, a cancellation charge of 50% of the full fee applies.
2 weeks out, full payment will be required.
Any additional requirements outside of your package booking will require incur additional costs (i.e time extensions, setup locations, extra musicians etc)
After receiving that 20% deposit, we require no further payment from you until we prompt you to do so with your final invoice issued around one month out from your wedding date, and due prior to the day.
Please do not, under any circumstances, transfer any extra payments without requesting an invoice to do so - We book hundreds of weddings each year and your money will get caught up in the transaction list and not allocated to an invoice by our bookkeeper, which will cause unnecessary confusion and problems for all involved. You only need to transfer your deposit, and then the balance when you receive the final invoice.
Payment of the deposit invoice is a binding digital acceptance of these terms and conditions, and all T&Cs to follow.

Package time:

Our acoustic + DJ packages cover the full day of a standard wedding (3-11) 8 hours. If it’s a few minutes here and there then that’s not a problem, but, for example, a 2pm ceremony with a midnight finish will incur further charges.
We charge $100 for every 30 minutes after 11pm, and $200 for every 15 minutes after midnight.
The outlined finish time is the finish time - If you are on a private property with no restrictions and want the DJ to continue longer we charge $150 for every 30 minutes after 11pm, and $200 for every 15 minutes after midnight.
Only 1 member of the duo/trio is required to stay on site once from first dance onwards.

Musician/DJ requirements:

Meals/Food options and refreshments are required for bookings over 3 hours (water and soft drink is fine, unless otherwise discussed)
Tables are to be provided by the venue/purchaser and are required for all DJ bookings.
Power outlets must be provided for bookings requiring audio production unless organised in advance
Our DJs and musicians will not tolerate any abuse from any guests

Audio production and set ups

A maximum of 3 setup locations are included in this booking - Ceremony, canapés + reception. Any additional logistical audio set up requirements will incur additional fees for further equipment hire
We do not provide any audio production, speaker, mic, or any sound equipment for your celebrant. 99% of celebrants are self sufficient, and accordingly we set up in a different spot to where the sound source for a celebrant should and would normal be, so it's important to have a separate dedicated system for your celebrant so people can hear the ceremony + your vows. If you have a family member or something along those lines marrying you, please be aware that we do not have the sound facilities available to mic them up etc. We make sure we sound awesome and have all we need, your celebrant should hopefully do the same.
Oberon Lane artists will not perform without minimal amplification - This is due to a number of factors including vocal strain, audio projection, awkwardness and everything in between. Minimal audio production (a small busking amp for example) must be allowed by your venue/event in order for an Oberon Lane Artist to perform for you.

Parking & Loading:

Complimentary parking is to be provided for all artists at all weddings, or the costs paid by the client unless otherwise discussed.
Parking and loading must be made as simple as possible for the musicians.

Your artist brief:

We need your artist brief no later than 10 days out from your wedding so our artists have the time to learn the songs required for your big day and organise all relevant playlists, entry songs and logistical requirements
Any artist brief filled out after 7 days out from the wedding will forfeit the ‘song learning’ requirement of the package and the artist can opt to play pre-recorded versions
Any artist brief filled out after 7 days out from the wedding will potentially forfeit any ‘above and beyond’ audio logistical requirements
Changes to your artist brief will not be accepted within 48 hours of your start time - And please minimise this within the 10 day timeframe - Any changes risk not being received and therefore we’re all taking the risk in complications leading to mistakes
These rules are in place for your benefit and to ensure that you get everything you need.

Wedding Event Coordinators

If you have a wedding coordinator coming on board, please ensure they fill out the artist brief so that we have all the required information we need in the formatting we require. Regardless of how thorough your coordinator's runsheet is, it will almost certainly miss some crucial music-specific details, so please make sure they know that it is compulsory.
If you decide to fill out the artist brief yourself instead of having your coordinator do it for you, it is up to you to include all the details.

Lighting:

Our artists do not provide DJ lighting rigs; they just set up simple fairy lights. Most wedding venues, stylists and clients want to keep everything stylistically aligned (generally nice and romantic in atmosphere/vibe), so we've learnt through experience to keep it simple and just add some fairy lights to our DJ setups. For anything beyond that, you'll need to hire from an external lighting hire company.

MC:

Please note, our packages do not include any MCing – this is not something we offer. We do, however, highly recommend having a confident MC to ensure your wedding reception runs smoothly. If you don't have a friend or family member who is capable and willing, please let us know if you would like some recommendations for professional MCs.

Songs, sets & DJ:

You can choose 3 key songs to be learnt for your ceremony. Song learning is included all packages and all our artists are required to attempt a version of your desired ceremony songs
If the artists attempts to learn a song and truly believes that their version is a let-down in comparison to the original, or has concerns of their ability to nail it in any capacity we encourage them to notify us of this and then we can discuss with you. You don’t want a bad version of your ’dream’ song ruining a moment and all artists have their own niches and restrictions and not everyone car do everything.
Beyond these songs for the special moments, we are happy to look over any songs you have in mind and put them to the artist, however the time involved in this process can endure further charges to your package. We’ll endeavour to accommodate all requests, but it may not be possible on all occasions.
All songs not performed by an artist can be played via a background playlist or the DJ and heard on the day.
You cannot hear a recording of your aisle song in advance - All our artists are learning multiple songs every week for multiple weddings and we don’t start learning until the week of your wedding - If you’re tossing up between a ‘live version’ and the original version that you love but you want to hear it first, the it’s best just to go with the original and that way we know you’ll be happy.
We do not offer the acoustic solo/duo/trio for the later part of your reception when guests are typically keen to boogie down. Our acoustic trios are perfect for all the earlier parts of your wedding day; they create an incredible vibe and groove that really fills a room and sets a mood. But when it comes to dancing, it’s just not what people want to hear. (We’ve learnt this the hard way!)
Sets - 3 x sets are included in your package, please see the explanation below:
We do not play the first dance live, and no longer offer this as an option due to the logistical issues with transitioning into the DJ set.
Artists will have music organised for in between set breaks, but if you have something specific that you’d like to hear just make a Spotify playlist and send it through when you fill out your questionnaire.
Our DJs, generally, do not play any requests with heaps of profanity or outrageous lyrics (think WAP or Get Low) - If they are getting pressured to do so they will send those who are asking to check with you first.
Yes you 100% can give the DJ a guide of what you want to hear on the night, we love this! You have a great professional on board that knows how to pump a party, but a guide is very helpful! They will do their best to incorporate them, and use it as a guide to know what you like either way.

Will the artist/s attend the rehearsal?

Unfortunately not - the artist/s are booked for the day of your wedding only and are not available to attend rehearsals.
This is because:
a) They have very busy schedules
b) It is not necessary. Our artists know exactly what they are doing and will nail it for you :)

Emails, Contact & Office Hours:

We generally work on emails from around 11am-5pm, Mondays Tuesdays and Thursdays. We find it harder to respond to everything on the weekends as we’re out playing at weddings ourselves, but we’ll do our best to get back to you as soon as possible, but just know if you email at night or on a weekend there will be a delay in our response time.
We have a fairly strict no phone call policy - If you’d like to talk to us please send us a txt or email first and we’ll call you back - Phone calls lead to no paper trail, no record of what was said etc, and when you’re dealing with 500+ weddings per year we need the constant flow of information to be retrievable at the drop of a hat. We have learnt this the hard way - COVID times have deeply reconfirmed this requirement to us - Date changes, time changes, address changes, lineup changes, song changes, questions etc etc etc - txt or email and the team will sort it out :)
If your wedding is over two weeks away we will also place your email into a relevant cue to ensure that pressing details are dealt with in accordance to the closeness of the event date - This will benefit you when it’s your time we promise :)

Communication:

When booking artists through Oberon Lane we hope and trust that you enjoy our correspondence and can trust that we communicate everything required to our artists. We pride ourselves on correlating all relevant information received into a very user friendly version for our artists, so please email us all your questions and information to us and don’t contact our artists directly. The artists are comfortable and settled with this system and have found it the most effective way to get the best result for your wedding and event.
While we understand the desire to build a rapport with everybody that will contribute to your special day, your artist will know almost nothing of the requirements of your day until one week out from the wedding and this is where the Oberon Lane Team shines! Our job is to communicate with you! We can guide you through the process, answer your questions and liaise with the artists on your behalf. A single line of communication ensures you get accurate information and minimises confusion. Plus, it frees up our artists to do what they do best. It’s a win/win!
Also note - We do not take phone calls - We need a paper trail for everything. EVERYTHING! - Even a txt will suffice - We have had a rough history with details being given over the phone, and whilst we’ve avoided most mishaps, it is fundamentally impossible for us to recall and notate everything instructed to us over the phone. It leads to us having a potentially inaccurate record of the changes from both sides and so we do not answer calls. We’re so sorry about that, but it’s a strict policy we had to implement to ensure your day runs smoothly.
Please send all files and links to us and we will forward it on.

COVID

1. We can postpone if we have to and shift the date - This is fine. We'll 100% go ahead on the current date if it's fine to do so - We're happy either way.
2. If we're not available on the new date, we'll have one of our other great duos that do the same package available for you to choose from.
3. If you're not happy with the new artist, at that point we can refund you and you can shop elsewhere
4. We’ve gotta do whatever we can to make sure everyone is happy and music is in the air on your big day, so we'll do whatever we can to make that happen.

Extreme circumstances:

On occasion some situations happen and the artists you’ve booked are unable to be there on the day. Don’t worry, this is why securing your music through a wedding music agency is a smart move for modern times! we’ll always find and source you a suitable replacement no matter what hour of day or night. We pride ourselves on booking the most professional and high quality musicians you can find, and we’ll always do whatever we can to make your event run perfectly to plan.
*Note on extreme circumstance - COVID times have led to an increase in the frequency of this kind of situation popping up. We are of course far more cautious in sending artists with any sign of COVID-style symptoms to venues, and this has therefore led to several circumstances in which we’ve had to switch artists out the day of/day before performances. We hope you understand that whilst we’ll do all we can to avoid ever altering your booking, COVID protocol will dictate what we need to do and will have an impact on some occasions. Please trust that you will always have a talented and professional artist at your venue no matter what.

What is the process if this extreme circumstance happens and my selected artist is unable to be there?

if your artist pulls out within 7 days prior to the wedding, please note that you will not be advised until AFTER we have arranged a suitable replacement – this is our protocol because we’ve found it causes the least amount of stress to the couple.
You might think you would like to be kept in the loop if this happens to you, but think of it like this: letting you know prior would have no impact on the outcome; it would only cause you unnecessary stress on your wedding week. So, try to relax and know that we’ve got you covered no matter what.

And finally:

We’re so glad to be on board for your wedding day - This is an exciting and fun time for you, and trust us when we say that you are in the safest hands possible and we’ll do whatever we can to ensure you’re well prepared and have one less thing to worry about for your wedding.

Payment of the deposit invoice is a binding digital acceptance of these terms and conditions.

Elle May Baker

Director — Oberon Lane