Elan Artists: Music, Photo, Video

I loved Nation!!! From start to finish they were wonderful. The band includes a great group of very talented musicians including 3 amazing singers who can sing anything from Frank Sinatra to Beyonce. The dance floor was packed all night and everyone kept saying how they sounded like the original singers of the songs that were sung!! Before the wedding, Josh (from Elan Artists) and Nicki (Band Leader) were very responsive and easy to work with. They made sure that everything went perfect for my wedding day music.

This is a huge company so I'm not sure how it's determined who you work with, but I worked with Gretchen and she was amazing. Every question I had she answered immediately (we usually 'spoke' via e-mail). She was helpful when I couldn't pick songs and a joy to work with. I couldn't hear the music that well for my ceremony but it was really windy which I think is what caused that.

Perfect musician for our ceremony! A classiscal guitarist! He learned two new songs and Gretchen, the musical coordinator at Elan was extremely responsive and flexible in helping us plan the ceremony. Now every time I hear "falling slowly" or "All you need is love" I will think of our wedding because he played it so perfectly! Thank you!!

Open Eye Media was our videographer at our wedding and The Source was our band. They were both outstanding, and I would recommend them highly to anyone planning a wedding. The Source, in particular, was outstanding. Our dance floor was packed all night long, and I would hire them again.

I used Shane Carpenter from Elan Artists. His work is amazing. He had a great eye for detail and was extremely nice to work with.

We booked our ceremony musician and reception band through Elan Artists. I worked with Josh Friedman to book the band, then Gretchen Clements worked with me to hammer out the details for the musicians (ceremony song choices, etc.). They were both very responsive and easy to work with. Our ceremony musician (Ken Hall) played classical guitar for two hours, then joined with a bass guitar player and drummer to play light jazz for the reception for three hours. The music was just what I had hoped for, and even my musical family (grandpa, dad, sister, and both brothers are musicians) couldn't stop talking about how great the performance was. They helped set a relaxed, mellow mood for our event, and toward the end they even took some requests from my grandpa, who plays jazz at weddings himself. I would recommend Elan Artists, and would highly recommend Ken Hall in particular.

We used Nation, of Elan Artists, for our band and they were wonderful. They had people on the dance floor the entire night and were more than gracious at working with our special requests. I would recommend them to any bride that wants everyone to dance.

We hired Nation Band through Elan artists and they were absolutely fantastic! The music was great- they really responded to the music we wanted to hear and had a lot of fun with us! The variety of music they can play is really amazing- I worried that a band wouldn't provide enough variety and that we might be better off with a DJ, but that was not the case! They played a lot of great music from a variety of genres- couldn't be happier! They complied with requests and included our list of 'must play' songs and played a lot of other great songs too. Everyone had a blast and they were a pleasure to work with. Strongly recommend!

We worked with Josh at Elan early in our wedding planning, and benefited from that decision every step of the way. In the end, we booked our photographer, guitarist (ceremony), pianist (cocktail hour) and DJ services through him. The caliber of professionals he supplied were top-notch and uniformly great to work with. Most importantly for this review, the DJ services he personally delivered were just phenomenal! It's really impossible to overstate how important the music is in setting the right tone for the reception, and Josh's instincts were absolutely spot-on. Every step of the evening was simply perfect. We hadn't expected for there to be much, if any, dancing during our reception, but we couldn't have been more wrong! Everyone in attendance spent the majority of the evening drawn to that dance floor, grinning ear to ear, enjoying a flawless mix of just the right music for every moment. In the end, I'd even go so far as to say that today I'd count Josh among my friends - just a great guy to work with, and truly a master at what he does. Thank you Josh!

Elan artists was a dream to work with. We booked the UGO Orchestra for our reception and a string trio for our ceremony. We couldn't have been happier with the final result and our guests were raving about the band all night long. They are a bit pricey but I would say that they were worth every penny. You get what you pay for and Elan artists is top notch in service and quality.

We were so pleased with our harp and flute duo and the service leading up to the big day. Our music coordinator was so on the ball and made sure she had everything she needed. Great with follow ups and super friendly! The musicians really were first rate and everyone complimented us on how beautiful it was. Had everyone crying!

I booked Nation though Elan Artists on the recommendation of a friend. I could not have been more pleased with the band. Our dance floor was packed the entire night-- the caterer had to ask the band to tell people to sit down to eat their entrees! We ended up extending the band and bar for an extra hour because the dancing was so much fun with this band. Only drawbacks-- the band manager was not very prompt in responding to my emails, including the week before the wedding. Also, they did not tell me until we arrived at the reception that they did not have a copy of our father-daughter dance song (which we agreed that they wouldn't play). Fortunately, the song was in my IPod, which I had in my room at the venue, so a bridesmaid was able to get it. Other than those two problems, the band was amazing, and everyone there has commented on how the band was one of the best wedding bands they have ever heard.

we used elan for our ceremony music and one of their photographers (who we booked independently before he knew he was affiliated with elan). this review is for the ceremony only.honestly, this was probably the last thing we booked as it wasn't really critical for us to have live music at the ceremony but we did decide to hire a harpist and a violinist. overall, i think they did a good job. i didn't hear much as i was concentrating on getting married :) but from what i heard from the guests, it was a beautiful touch. about a week before the wedding, i had a call with gretchen from elan to decide my music selections. she was very helpful and even sang certain songs to me so i could tell what they sounded like. we were having a non-denominational ceremony but she did make many religious song suggestions...probably because many of them were popular. she was flexible in listening to my suggestions though. i only knocked them down a notch b/c i noticed in the photos that the harpist wore sunglasses the entire ceremony even though she was in a shaded area. no biggie.i think it turned out very well. i did think they were a little pricey ($850 for 1 hour for 2 people) but unfortunately, it doesn't seem like you can get a bargain in that department.

I hired a solo guitarist through Elan Artists to do my ceremony and cocktail hour. He arrived on time and was very professional. My only complaint was when I started down the aisle, he didn't start playing the music immediately. He waited for me to start walking. My ceremony was outside and my guests could see me walking from further away than the 'typical' entrance so that meant I was walking to silence and only about 5 seconds of the song was actually played.Other than that, the music was beautiful. I didn't hear the cocktail hour music because I was out getting pictures taken, but my guests said it was nice background music.The event coordinators from Elan were very responsive and very organized. This was a very positive experience because I didn't have to worry about following up with them, they always reached out to me to confirm before I had a chance to do so.

I can barely remember even hearing any music during my ceremony, I was so out of it- but what I do remember, was good. I heard positive things from my guests about the brass quartet we picked. I was frustrated however with the process of picking songs- I was given a list of possible song titles, and every time I would take the names to the coordinator, she would say, "whoops, we don't have that for a brass quartet"....well, then give me songs you DO HAVE! I paid extra to have a special song arranged, which was pretty pricey as far as I was concerned.

They did a good job with our videos. We got a few different ones and we were happy with the outcome. It's important though to be specific to get exactly what you want.

I wanted to write this review because while I think Elan represents extraordinary talent and you will typically be very satisfied with your choices, I was very taken aback by the customer service I received with Josh. I believe he books most of the artists that Elan represents so unfortunately its difficult to avoid him but I felt he was abrasive, rude and generally difficult to work with. He never really listened to what we wanted and was just interested in "sealing the deal" even if he had to make up total lies about the date booking up. Because of my experience with Josh, I will think twice about engaging Elan's services.

Reason why I chose Elan - Open Eye Media was from their marketing video. However, please know that Elan subcontracts the work out to their listing of vendors. What they do is keep a finders fee which is the initial deposit that you send them when you sign up. My Videographer was Dave Morely. He works in the Baltimore/DC area. I haven't seen my video yet and I'm really looking forward to my final product. Some cons are that since their main offices are in Brooklyn, the responsiveness is a tad bad. You have to work through multiple people to get an answer. And the person might be away on vacation. What you should expect is not communicated to you. At one point, since no one contacted me, I called them and requested the name and contact information of my videographer. They don't give you the info you need up front and you have to ask them or else I don't even know if someone would have contacted me to let me know. My Videographer was Dave and he did his thing. He takes video and films the day. That's what I hired him to do. To film each and every detail. His assistant did the same as well. She was a bit more talkative and nice. This film then is sent to an editing group for the company (Open Eye Media) and I think I get the video in the mail??? No one has explaned this to me??? We shall see.... what happens.

We booked a String Trio for the Ceremony/Cocktail Hour - Cello, Flute, Violin. The Director was almost impossible to get in touch with from the beginning, which should have been my first warning sign. We waited until a month prior to the wedding to book our Ceremony Musicians so I had very few to choose from. They were 30 minutes late setting up for the ceremony, which ended up being Ok because were running behind due to the weather anyway, but that still rubbed me the wrong way. They did play beautifully, but I probably wouldn't use them again, due to the lack of quality customer service.

We were very disappoitned with the band that Elan provided us even though we loved them from what we heard before we booked them and from their reviews. They did not play any of the music that we had agreed on and they messed up the playing of the CD for our first dance and dances with our father and mother. The leader of the band was not present and this may have been the problem but the follow up from Elan Artists was terrible - in fact they sent us a survey and when we responded back negatively we never heard back from them. It didn't ruin the event but it was not what we had agreed on or expected.