My daughter asked me to look into live music for her outdoor wedding in the loggia at Cafe Brauer. I cold-contacted Ryan Hobbs at Northside Brass and was immediately hooked. Ryan was responsive, pleasant and professional at all times. NSB has samples of its wide-ranging ceremonial repertoire on its website, so the wedding party was able to get a true sense of what we actually would be hearing at the wedding. On top of that, NSB is flexible: I was looking for the depth provided by the brass quintet, but my daughter wanted a trio piece as her processional; no problem, they arranged it for the quintet. The bride and groom wanted "their song" for the recessional; no problem, NSB found an arrangement and learned it. Another flexibility advantage of a brass choir (compared to strings): it's not fragile. While exploring our music options, we learned that the violins get put away pretty quickly if the weather is not to their liking, but the trumpets and tubas keep on playing. Also, br... Read moreass instruments have the ability to increase the volume if necessary: we had a windy day, but every guest heard the music. It is hard to do justice in words to the joy and majesty that Northside Brass brought to this wedding. These guys simply knocked it out of the park. That was just part one. Part two was the cocktail hour for which they unobtrusively filled the loggia with a mix of jazz, standards and Motown. It's not like the UW Marching Band playing Sousa marches: these musicians are seasoned professionals who know how to set the right tone. The bottom line: a brass choir at a wedding takes everything to the next level, and Northside Brass exceeded our already-high expectations.

Northside brass were so great to work with, and provided such wonderful service. They provided a string quartet for our ceremony and a jazz combo for our cocktail hour. Our guests raved about both groups of musicians. Everyone arrived early, handled set up and break down efficiently, and were just outstanding musicians. I would recommend them without hesitation to anyone looking for just the right touch of live music for any part of their wedding.

Northside Brass and Strings did my daughter's ceremony and cocktail hour on 7/21/18. Extremely easy to deal with, reasonable price, and completely professional job. Not a moment of worry with them and the music was flawless. Highly recommend.

Awesome group! Guests enjoyed the beautiful processional music at the ceremony and raved about the wide variety and top-quality songs played during the cocktail hour. We were very pleased with their talent and service!

Northside Brass was great, very easy to work with!

Amazing talent and very flexible to work with!

We had a brass quintet from Northside Brass play for our outdoor wedding ceremony at the Wilder Garden in Elmhurst. Ryan Hobbs runs Northside Brass, and he was also the lead trumpet player/director of the quintet at our ceremony. I dealt with Ryan throughout the planning process, primarily through e-mail, and he was always highly responsive and helpful in answering my questions. We chose specific tunes from a brass quintet wedding repertoire that Northside Brass has. Their repertoire was broader than other brass groups that we looked at, and pricing was also reasonable. Those factors, along with Ryan's responsiveness, helpfulness, and professional experience were the reasons we chose Northside Brass. We were very pleased with our choice! When watching our wedding video, the brass music is one of the highlights, as it added joy, beauty, and class to the entire ceremony. We chose 5 tunes that were played as guests were arriving for the ceremony; a couple of tunes for the wedd... Read moreing processional; one for the bride's entrance; one during the ceremony; one for the recessional; and two for postlude music as guests left the ceremony. The wedding day went very smoothly as Ryan's group arrived promptly and set up efficiently in the perfect location for our specific wedding venue. We dreamed of having beautiful, uplifting brass music at our ceremony and Northside Brass made our dream come true!

We were absolutely thrilled with the music at my daughter and son-in-law's wedding. Sarah on trumpet and the string quartet all did a superb job! We are so grateful for their outstanding skill and artistry. And Ryan, you were the most wonderful person to work with on the music...you were responsive and flexible and SO fun to work with. The music really was flawless...we were overjoyed. THANK YOU.

We booked the trio. They were very easy to work with and the music was beautiful!

Northside Brass played at our outdoor ceremony in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Ryan was phenomenal to work with; they were also very flexible on our wedding day. Despite the rain, everything turned out perfectly. I walked down the aisle to Trumpet Voluntary; and it sounded so regal, just how I imagined. It truly blew our guests away. My husband and I received so many compliments on our ceremony as well as our cocktail hour. They played at our outdoor cocktail hour for an additional two hours, and our guests enjoyed every second! Thank you Ryan and Northside Brass for making our wedding day so beautiful!

Northside Brass and Strings were great! They accommodated for the music I suggested and helped me to pick out the best music for the ceremony and cocktail hour. We received such great compliments from out guests! They were very professional and extremely nice. I knew everything was going to be great!

We booked Northside Brass & Strings to perform our ceremony music and to play during our cocktail hour. We met with Ryan and were very impressed with his attention to detail and ease to work with. Everything we suggested was met with enthusiasm, and he had a number of suggestions in turn that were wonderful. The day of the wedding, everything went smoothly. The quartet added a lot of fun to the ceremony, and the live music was everything we'd hoped it to be. They also played at the cocktail hour. While we were required outside for photos, I was told by many guests that they made the atmosphere there just as wonderful. In fact, I received a large number of compliments on the band from guests throughout the night and for the days following. We're so happy they were part of our special day, and would highly recommend them to anyone else looking for fun, live music!

Northside Brass was phenomenal! We used a jazz quartet (upright bass, percussion, trumpet, and piano) for our ceremony and cocktail hour. I had done quite a bit of shopping around regarding price and stipulations for playing at an outdoor ceremony. So many vendors were very particular about the temperature being above 60 degrees or 65 degrees, which is hard to guarantee for an April wedding in Chicago. Ryan was much more accommodating in this regard. NSB was low maintenance regarding their requirements. They allowed us to use their microphones for the ceremony. They rehearsed with our singers before the ceremony. Ryan completely let us customize our song lists and what the quartet played when. I got exactly what I wanted, and we heard so many compliments after the fact regarding how great the music was. Ryan was very responsive and helpful with the planning and execution process.

We booked a 4 piece jazz quartet (upright base, saxophone, drums, keyboard) through Northside Brass for our wedding reception. They played throughout our cocktail hour, dinner, and also for our first dance as husband and wife. The musicians were spectacular and it added great ambiance during cocktails and dinner. We requested classic jazz hits and also some jazzy Christmas songs as our wedding was in December. Dancing to live music for our first dance made it all the more romantic. We had lots of compliments from guests as well. I would highly recommend booking a band through this company! They were very reasonable as well.