AIBU to think this "wedding pianist" is unbelievably rude?

[Bamsmam]

We are getting married in April and have found a lovely venue which allows us to source music ourselves. I looked around options locally and they all charge a fortune for 5-6 hour packages which we don't really need - just someone to play a few tunes as guests arrive and during and after the ceremony, nice and quiet, nothing complicated.

A friend told me about a friend of hers who plays for weddings sometimes, not as a full time career because she does other music work too. So I got in touch with her, mentioned my friend's name, said what I wanted and asked for a quote. She came back to me with £220!! For a couple of hours piano playing! Surely this is money for old rope.

I wrote back and said I thought it was a little on the steep side and this is where the rudeness comes in. She actually messaged me back and said I should start taking lessons now myself and in ten years I'll be as good as her and can play for my next wedding! AIBU to think that this is extremely unprofessional and also a very unpleasant way to communicate with prospective customers?

You are paying £10 for playing the piano and £190 for knowing how to play it.
As the Bible says, the labourer is worthy of his hire.

You're just being silly now.

How rude. She's offering you a bargain. She's not even a mate.

I think you are really out of touch with how much people who are skilled get paid.

My dh has a perfectly ordinary although skilled office type job and just worked out what he gets paid per day when he was made redundant and then they asked him back to do a few days and it was £600 per day.

Well done for calling her out, OP! That ‘wedding pianist' really needed calling out and you were probably the first person with the nerve to do it.

What were you calling her out on, by the way? And what was she then ‘insecure’ about?

I am a decent pole dancer if you'd like me to rock up for £50 and a couple of free Proseccos OP?

You're getting some good offers here, OP. You could have quite the event.

Alternatively my 4 year is a wiz on the glockenspiel - she’ll do it for £30!

I was convinced this was a reverse. I’m struggling to believe someone could be this much of a twat tbh.

Im guessing you haven't seen how much a wedding cake is ...

Surely you’re having a laugh? That’s a bargain for a wedding

I think that price is fair. She is probably sick of people expecting her to give her time and talent for free / cheap. What might seem easy enough to you has taken her years to accomplish

Team pianist all the way! 220 is incredibly inexpensive for a live performance. And, your response to her was disrespectful. Just out of curiosity, how much were you expecting to pay?

That's a funny fact, I wonder why?

DH used to get this all the time before he joined an agency for some reason people think Bands/ musicians should work for £50 and a packet of peanuts.

I bet it isn't a few hours either you said before the ceremony that is probably half an hour, during the ceremony half an hour and then after I suspect is two hours. So we are already at 4 hours she'd probably want to get there early and might need to do some set up.
If you have gaps in-between things as well you could easily be talking 6-7 hours even if she's only playing for a few of them.

She's not your friend though, so you don't qualify for mates' rates. And while she might not be a full-time wedding pianist you stated in your OP that she's works in music the rest of the time – that makes her a professional musician and she deserves to be paid a professional rate to play on a Saturday. Presumably you weren't going to pay for her travel to and from the venue? Her rate is really decent if it includes travel too.

No-one said she is a professional "wedding pianist", just that she is a professional pianist, which it seems she is. Her quote is fine, you didn't have to accept it, but it's not up to you to tell her what she should be charging.

We seem to have "one of those" OPs here, even though the vote is overwhelmingly saying they are unreasonable they are still insisting they aren't.

£220 is a brilliant price, YWBVVVU. Maybe you'll find a reasonably capable teenager to come over and bash out a few tunes for pocket money prices.

You should have just thanked her for her quote and said you will be in touch if you wish to proceed. There was no need to be rude to her and say her quote was a bit steep, how was she supposed to take that?

OP come on now. Think about it. It's not just for 2 hours of playing the piano and creating the desired ambience. She will have to spend time practicing the songs you have requested no matter how simple they are, she will have travel expenses as well and as some previous posters has pointed out the money needs to be worth her while. Don't be so stingy. I can understand why she was offended. You did completely accuse her of money grabbing.

I wanna see a pole dance to Eleanor Rigby now.

I’m a band musician. You were incredibly rude. If you didn’t like the quote, you could have easily messaged back to say thank you that’s out of our budget?

1. The fact she has other work does not mean she isn’t a professional. If a surgeon was taking a second job as an uber driver they would still be a professional surgeon.
2. It’s not “a couple of hours piano playing”. There’s travel, prep time, repertoire choices of the client, setting up time, packing away.
3. £220 is an absolute bargain, and if you can get someone for less than that I’d be pretty surprised.

Agreed. You have the makings of a pretty good cabaret here!

Will certainly be a talking point in your nice venue.

This thread totally needs the laughter emoticon to be reinstated!
😂
(I actually am a decent pole dancer, I've been learning for years and have performed at a couple of small festivals and a few friend's birthdays FWIW-- I am now contemplating offering myself at weddings, wonder how that'd go!?)😂

Our church organist was £150 just for the Mass, I don’t know why you think £220 is too steep and in the context of a wedding I’d say it’s extremely reasonable. You don’t have to book her and she’s not your mate. YABU to expect mates rates, how rude