Private Clients
Understanding the Cost of Private Event AV
What drives the cost of sound, lighting, and technical production at a private event, how production budgets scale with the complexity of what you are asking for, and what separates a quote that has been thought through from one that has not.
private event AV production cost
01
What goes into a production budget
A production quote covers equipment, crew, travel, and time. Not just the time the kit is in the room while guests are present, but load-in, rigging, sound check, teardown, and travel to and from the site. For a private event at a country estate two hours from London, the transport and travel time for a three-person crew is a material line on the invoice before a single piece of equipment has been set up.
The equipment cost builds from the specification. A basic ceremony sound system for a daytime wedding is a different number from a full concert PA with monitor mix and a live band. A single uplighting wash in one colour is a different number from a programmable moving light rig designed and operated by a lighting programmer. The quote reflects what you have asked for, and a good company writes it down clearly enough that you can see why.
A production quote you cannot understand is a production relationship you cannot manage. Before accepting any quote, check that you know what each line is and what happens if you ask to change it.
02
What different budget levels represent
£3,500+
Ceremony and speech sound, basic reception lighting
Wireless microphones for the ceremony, a small PA for music playback and speeches, and a functional uplighting package for the reception space. One engineer on site. Appropriate for smaller venues with a simple day programme and no live band in the evening.
£8,500+
Full ceremony and reception production with entertainment integration
Ceremony sound plus a full reception PA suitable for a live band, front of house mix position, a designed lighting package for ceremony and reception, and at least two crew members present throughout. Suitable for a full-day wedding with a live band, up to around 150 guests, in a venue already familiar to the production company.
£22,000+
Fully specified multi-area production with entertainment technology
Multiple audio areas, concert-specification lighting rig, visual elements including LED or projection, full crew from load-in to load-out, and a production design service included from brief stage. Appropriate for large-scale private events, headline entertainment, or unusual venues requiring custom infrastructure.
03
The things that add cost
- ✓Live bands and concert production — A band with a technical rider requires a bigger PA, a monitor system, a separate mix engineer, and potentially backline equipment. If the band has a tour manager or sound engineer, they will want to speak to ours before the day. All of that is additional to a DJ-only evening.
- ✓Remote or unusual venues — A venue that requires generators, long cable runs, a challenging load-in, or specialist crew for rigging into a non-standard structure costs more than a hotel ballroom with mains power and a loading bay. The site survey is where this gets priced. A quote produced without a site visit is an estimate, not a specification.
- ✓Short notice — Production companies working at this level are typically booked months in advance. Short-notice bookings on premium dates require crew who are already engaged to be unavailable for other work, and that has a cost that gets reflected in the quote.
- ✓Equipment should be itemised — Not a single-line "PA system and lighting." You should be able to see what system is being provided, how many crew members are included, what the load-in and load-out hours are, and what happens if the day runs overtime. A clear quote is also a working agreement for the day.
- ✓Crew numbers matter — The crew number in the quote determines the standard of operation you will receive. A one-person crew managing sound and lighting at a 150-person wedding with a live band is not a realistic specification. The quote should include enough crew to operate every technical element throughout the event without anyone being stretched.
- ✓Ask what is not included — Power, tables and linens for production equipment, generator hire, backline for bands. These are often not included in a headline quote. Asking what the final total looks like when everything is included is the most useful question before accepting any production quote.