Shurthing played for our wedding in May and it was fantastic! Their business manager, Lavonne, met…read morewith us early in the process and we walked through the contract, music sets, and announcements that we wanted for the reception. She was easy to work with and extremely professional. We wanted a special song for our wedding dance and the band learned the song so they could play it for us - we were very happy about that! On the day of the reception, the band set up and everything went smoothly! We asked the band to do some additional scripting at the last minute and Jim did a great job with his "on the fly" cake cutting announcements. Lavonne was at the reception and made sure the night went smoothly. The music was everything we had hoped it would be and we were so happy that Terry took the time to learn a special song just for us. Overall. Surthing made our wedding reception the magical night we had hoped it would be. The music was great, the band and manager were professional and our guests had a wonderful time. Thank you, Shurthing and Lavonne!

My sister hired ShurThing for her wedding in Aug. As an event planner, I took over to coordinate…read morefor her two weeks out. Lavonne (the manager) called me 3 or 4 times a day for 2 weeks before the wedding. She could not process the timeline I had created & when I asked a few simple questions (how much would it cost to have them play with no breaks, etc.) each one became so convoluted that I stopped answering her calls & just waited until the end of the day to call her back once. She made it so painful to deal with them & get a plan into place that we ended up giving up some of the playing time that we paid for just because it wasn't worth it to deal with her anymore. She would tell me something was fine & then call me back the next day & tell me no & every time I got on the phone with her it was a 30-minute conversation. Fast-forward to the wedding day. We had agreed that the bandleader, Jim, would MC even though the band wouldn't start playing until after dinner & introductions were at 7:30. I went to talk to him during cocktail hour & he had 1 sheet of the 8-page timeline & said that all he was told to do was the bridal party introductions. The insanity of this blows my mind. I talked to Lavonne about this at least 6 times & she made me write down an exact script for him to do the introductions (which I did). By no means did this mean I didn't want him to introduce the toasts, first dances or cake cutting. You are a BAND LEADER who is MC-ING A WEDDING. I am a wedding planner; my timelines are eight pages long & insanely detailed. Having "Bride & groom cut the cake, 8:05 PM, Song title, & Jim's name" by it isn't enough? You can't handle reading that & saying: "The bride & groom are now going to cut their wedding cake!" I was flabbergasted. Jim on the other hand, wasn't fazed & didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that this was all supposed to start in 30 minutes. Lavonne told me she would be there all night, so I asked Jim where she was; nowhere to be found. I called & left a VM for her & went through all of it with my brother so that I had a back up if Lavonne didn't show up & work this out. At 7:15, I had the bridal party lined up & went to tell Jim we were going to be starting soon. Jim wasn't there. I called Jim, left voicemail. I called Lavonne, another voicemail. Finally at 7:25 she called me & told me Jim was on his way into the building. Seriously? 5 minutes before he's supposed to start announcing he's not in the room? I told her that was ridiculous & my brother was already on the mic. Apparently neither of them could be bothered to show up 5 minutes before it was supposed to start. Dancing began & Lavonne stood around all night taking photos & hovering around the dance floor. A bunch of people asked me who she was because it was weird & awkward. The band: good musicians, but they didn't read the crowd at all. Lavonne said they played straight off of the list that my sister & brother-in-law gave her but part of their job is to read the crowd. We wanted people dancing, when you play a song that clears the dance floor, kill it & do a song that will get people back. That's why we HIRED PROFESSIONALS. They did shameless self-promotion. "We're ShurThing come see us next weekend!" So inappropriate to do at a private event when someone is paying you thousands of dollars and after the 2nd time I went up & told them not to do it again, lo & behold at the end of the night, one more shameless plug. Sigh. The party ended, Lavonne came up & said "I'll need the check now." Lovely. I asked my parents about it & found out that my mom had completely forgotten her checkbook in the chaos of getting to the hair salon that morning. I explained that to Lavonne & asked if I could meet her at 7 AM with the check (we were staying downtown & my parents live on 192nd St.) & we wanted to hang out with our family & not drive 30 minutes out & 30 minutes back that night. I said it was our fault, we forgot it, but let's cut each other a little slack since the MC didn't actually MC at all, we both messed up (I used a different four letter word, which later she claims meant I was swearing AT her.) She was adamant that they weren't leaving until they got the check & she was going to call her lawyer (really?), so we went to get it. She called 3 times to ask where we were. Lavonne, I already explained to you that it was going to take an hour to get there & back & you wanted to wait, so wait. I followed up after the wedding, she was not apologetic at all, didn't see any reason why the MC should be there two minutes before he's supposed to be on mic. announcing the bridal party. It was all my fault, she argued with me the entire time: it was like dealing with a 3rd grader (no offense 3rd graders). If I could give them half of a star I would, b/c I guess you should get half a star for showing up & remembering to bring instruments. They did that. There are better musicians that will not make your event a living hell.