How much does a wedding guitarist cost in Denver? A solo ceremony — prelude, processional, recessional, all equipment, and your song requests, performed live — starts at 330. Cocktail hour music runs 165 solo, 330 for a duo, and 475 for a trio. Travel within the Denver metro adds 35 to 60. Those are my actual 2026 prices, published in full below.
I’m Jordan Lovinger, a wedding guitarist and vocalist based in Denver. I play guitar and bass, I sing, and I’ve performed for clients ranging from couples at mountain venues to the Denver Art Museum and NBCUniversal. This guide covers what live wedding music actually costs — my real packages, what moves the price up or down, how my rates compare to national averages, and how to budget for your specific wedding. All prices are in US dollars.
Why I Publish My Prices
Most wedding vendors make you fill out a form, wait two days, and hop on a call before they’ll say a number. I think that’s backwards. You’re planning the most logistics-heavy day of your life — you should be able to compare options on a Tuesday night without booking five discovery calls.
There’s a second reason, and it’s the one couples quietly worry about: the wedding markup. Plenty of vendors quote one price for a “party” and a higher one the moment they hear the word “wedding.” My pricing is built from three things — how long I play, how many musicians are on stage, and how far we travel. The word “wedding” isn’t a line item. Publishing the numbers keeps me honest about that, and it means the quote you get matches the prices you already saw.
It also filters in the right direction. If my rates fit your budget, great — send me your date and you’ll have a real quote, not a sales funnel. If they don’t, you’ve lost thirty seconds instead of a week of email.
My 2026 Wedding Music Prices
| Package | Solo (guitar + vocals) | Duo | Trio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ceremony — prelude, processional, recessional | From 330 | Custom | Custom |
| Cocktail hour — jazz, bossa nova, acoustic covers | 165 | 330 | 475 |
| Full reception — dinner through dancing | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Bundle discount: book the ceremony and cocktail hour together and save 10 percent solo, 15 percent duo, or 20 percent trio off the combined price. It’s the most popular way to book, because it gives you continuous live music from the first guest’s arrival through the end of mingling.
Travel: 35 within 30 minutes of Denver, 60 for venues 30 to 60 minutes out (Boulder, for example) — doubled for trio and larger groups. Mountain and out-of-metro venues are quoted based on distance.
Every package includes everything: guitar, amp, PA, mics, and cables; a quiet 15-minute setup in a 4-by-4-foot space; coordination directly with your planner or venue; professional attire; and a Certificate of Insurance if your venue requires one — I’m fully insured. There are no equipment fees, setup fees, or surprise add-ons at the end.
What Moves the Price
Five factors explain almost every wedding music quote you’ll ever receive — mine included.
How long the music runs
Time is the biggest lever. A 25-minute elopement ceremony and a four-hour reception are different jobs, and they’re priced like it. This is also where couples can save: a tight, well-planned timeline (ceremony flows straight into cocktail hour at the same site) costs meaningfully less than music scattered across a long day with gaps.
How many musicians are on stage
Each additional player is another professional’s afternoon, gear, and rehearsal time. Solo guitar and vocals is intimate and covers ceremonies and smaller cocktail hours beautifully. A duo — I add saxophone, violin, or a second guitar — fills a bigger room. A trio is a complete ensemble that reads as “we hired a band.” The right answer depends on your guest count and the space, not on spending more for its own sake.
Where the venue is
Within metro Denver, travel is a flat 35. Out to the 30-to-60-minute ring it’s 60, and both double for trio and larger groups because every musician is driving. Mountain venues — Breckenridge, Estes Park, Telluride — are quoted by distance, since a mountain wedding can mean a full travel day. I play mountain weddings regularly; just expect the travel line to reflect the drive.
Season and day of week
Here’s the honest version: my prices don’t change by season or day. A Tuesday in February costs the same as a Saturday in September. What changes is availability — summer and early-fall Saturdays in Colorado book up first, every year, without exception. In the broader market, plenty of musicians do charge peak-date premiums, which is one more reason quotes for the same wedding can vary so widely.
Special song requests
The ceremony package starts “from” 330 because every ceremony is custom. Learning and arranging your processional — the song that was playing when you got engaged, the one your grandmother sang — is some of the most rewarding work I do, and one or two requests are built into a typical ceremony quote. A long list of brand-new songs takes real arranging and rehearsal hours, and the quote reflects that.
What Wedding Musicians Cost Nationally
So you can sanity-check any quote — mine or anyone’s — here’s what the wider market looks like, based on published pricing guides rather than my opinion.
WeddingWire’s cost guide puts the national average for wedding ceremony music at around 500, with real variation by city — averages run from about 335 in Portland to 500 in Atlanta. CostHelper’s data on solo ceremony guitarists shows a range of roughly 100 to 425, while some full-service soloists (guitar, piano, violin) quote 500 to 1,500 for a wedding. Thumbtack’s pricing guides show solo musicians commonly charging 50 to 100 per hour, with wedding guitarists frequently quoting 100 to 200 for the first hour.
Bigger ensembles scale up fast. Published duo pricing for ceremonies commonly lands between 450 and 800. String trios from regional ensembles run roughly 500 to 650 for an hour, with some ceremony trio packages quoted as high as 1,800. String quartets range from about 400 to 2,000, and full wedding bands typically run 1,500 to 5,000 for a night.
Where do I sit in all that? My solo ceremony at 330 comes in under the roughly 500 national average. Cocktail hour at 165 is in line with typical solo hourly rates, and my trio at 475 is well below what most published trio pricing shows. I can price this way because I’m a full-time working musician with a deep local network — not an agency adding a booking fee on top of the players’ rates. I’m not the cheapest option in Denver and don’t intend to be; I aim to be the clearest.
How to Budget by Wedding Size
The package that makes sense depends less on budget and more on the shape of your day.
Elopement or micro-wedding (under 20 guests)
You need the ceremony, beautifully done, and nothing else. Solo ceremony from 330 plus travel — call it 365 to 390 in the Denver metro. Live processional music at an intimate wedding lands harder than at a big one, because everyone is close enough to feel it.
Around 50 guests
The sweet spot is ceremony plus cocktail hour, solo. Combined that’s 495, and the 10 percent bundle discount brings it to about 446 before travel. Your guests get continuous live music from seating through the end of cocktail hour, and you only coordinate with one vendor. For dinner afterward, a curated playlist through the venue’s system is a perfectly good handoff.
100 to 150+ guests
Bigger room, bigger sound. A common build: solo guitar for the ceremony (from 330), then a trio for cocktail hour (475) so the energy jumps when guests transition — around 805 plus travel before any bundle savings. If you want live music through dinner or dancing, the full reception is a custom quote based on your timeline; tell me about your day and I’ll price it for your actual schedule rather than a one-size package.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a wedding guitarist cost on average?
National pricing guides put average wedding ceremony music around 500, with solo guitarists ranging from roughly 100 to 425 and full-service soloists quoting up to 1,500. In Denver, my 2026 prices are 330 for a solo ceremony and 165 for a solo cocktail hour, plus 35 to 60 travel within the metro area.
What’s included in the price of a wedding guitarist?
With me, everything: all equipment (guitar, amp, PA, mics, cables), a 15-minute self-contained setup, learning your song requests, coordination with your planner or venue, professional attire, and a Certificate of Insurance on request. When comparing quotes, always ask whether equipment, setup time, and song requests are included — that’s where hidden costs usually live.
Do you require a deposit, and what happens if we cancel?
A 50 percent deposit reserves your date, with the balance due before the performance. If your plans change, tell me as early as possible — my first move is always to transfer your deposit to a new date rather than argue about it. The full terms are spelled out in writing with every quote, so there are no surprises.
Do couples tip their wedding guitarist?
Tips are never expected and never built into my pricing — the quote is the full price. That said, some couples do tip when a musician learns several custom songs or handles a day full of curveballs gracefully, and it’s always appreciated. There’s no etiquette obligation either way.
How far in advance should we book wedding music?
For summer and early-fall Saturdays in Colorado, six to twelve months ahead is the safe window — those dates go first every year. Off-peak dates and weekdays can often be booked within a month or two. If your date is close, ask anyway; a specific date question takes me minutes to answer.
Planning a Colorado wedding? See the full wedding music details — packages, live demo videos, and answers from real couples — or skip straight to get a quote. Tell me your date and venue, and you’ll have a real number within 24 hours.
