Reply from Master Musicians Incorporated
There are all types of humans. Some are positive and happy, some are negative which attracts negative occurrences. Ashley is the latter. The weather was beautiful, and hot, on September 5th, 2026 in Homestead Florida. Ashley’s wedding started an hour late due to electricity being out because of something with FPL. She was already upset that toilets had to be flushed with buckets of water. She is looking for a free wedding all the way around, and approached me with some of her upsets a few days after her wedding asking for the $275 she spent on the violinist. She said if I pay her she will not give a negative review. I do not need to be bought out of a bad review, especially when I do not feel Master Musicians is in the wrong.
Her upsets that she expressed to me after her wedding were:
1 - The violinist used the original recording of Taylor Swift for the officiant’s entrance. This is true, this is the only mishap on our end. Ashley wanted vocals for 4 of the 5 songs she wanted for the processionals. Mind you, processionals usually only have one song prior to the bride, or maybe two - not 5. Master Musicians is accommodating and we agreed to make it happen, with Ashley knowing there will be a pause between songs as the violinist fades out, starts the next track, and it begins.
https://youtu.be/l3M5IQz6Dns
In Ashley’s call to me complaining that “Taylor Swift sang at my wedding! I hate Taylor Swift” is confusing because in the attached video that Ashley provided to me, the only time I see she is happy at her wedding is when she is singing a Taylor Swift song! Ashley said that she wanted it instrumental as it is a special song with the officiant, her friend, and that no one would know the song. I replied “Love Story is an iconic song and guests will certainly recognize it”.
https://youtu.be/6T9igm36pmc
2 - Her second complaint was about the Bridal Party’s entrance song “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” sung by Sonny Tennet not Aerosmith. The person cueing the bridal court when to walk didn’t pause after the family member to allow for the song change and allowed the bridal party to walk therefore the song had to be changed midway through the walk. Watch the video “L-O-V-E family processional”. This is not the Violinist’s fault.
https://youtu.be/r-oMpA-aYHc
3 - Ashley’s entrance.
https://youtu.be/D3JC0AdI1-s
When going over the final details with Ashley two weeks before her wedding, I asked her “which version of L-O-V-E” she wanted and her snappy reply was “it’s Nat King Cole’s version, its about 2 1/2 minutes”. When we then reviewed about her entrance and she said she wanted Kina Grannis’ version of Can’t Help Falling in Love, I said no problem I’ll get it. She sounded stress during the call and I didn’t want to add to that. True, I found the version on YouTube. It is an easier platform to download the track and share it with our musicians than on a platform like Spotify since I cannot download and share. I did NOT know there are three versions on Spotify which Ashley brought to my attention after the fact. The difference is one version has a longer intro and apparently Ashley wanted moments to herself before she walked down the aisle and felt rushed because when she heard the vocals she wanted to start walking. View video of Ashley’s entrance and you can see there is a 11 second pause as the violinist switches songs and then another 11 seconds of instrumentals before the vocals start. Giving at least 20-25 seconds for her to catch her breath as she claims she wanted. The version that has a longer intro has about a 25 second instrumental before the vocals - meaning the same amount of time passed.
To address the claim that professional musicians should not use YouTube, on Electric String Players FB group (where many high end professional violinists share information), a thread from 5 days ago, on 10-29-26, a violinist asked where to get tracks and YOUTUBE was the most common response! See attached photo.
As she mentioned, she provided the DJ the Spotify of her ceremonial songs. Wow! Why she wouldn’t share this with me too questions her setting up this situation.
4 - Ashley’s final complaint was that the exit song, Marry You, by Bruno Mars had vocals. They did not. See attached video of exit song.
https://youtu.be/LDweVLKtaNY
The wedding started a full hour late, but not because of the rain as she writes in her post (go ahead and check out the weather in Homestead on 9/5/26). The violinist had another performance after this wedding and chose to stay and be late for his other gig. If he left, I would be hearing from Ashley about how dare he leave without playing for her processional and would have demanded a refund.
For her to say that the musician never introduced himself, well, it is not common for a musician to seek out the couple and say hello before the wedding. The couple is in pictures, they are busy - they don’t want to be bothered by a musician saying “hello”. The violinist ended up being on site for 3 hours. There is a full hour of overtime charges and because Ashley is upset with the vocals being present for the officiant’s entrance, I said we will not charge her for this hour of overtime. Having the vocals for the officiant's entrance does not warrant a full refund, and certainly does not warrant saying that “Master Musicians ruined my wedding”.
I told Ashley “Instead of sending a bill for the overtime, I will canceled the charge in lieu of having the vocals for the officiant's entrance.
Juan's pre-ceremony performance and accompaniment to the recordings are beautiful, and he deserves to be paid for his time and overtime. Master Musicians has paid him for his service.
I wished you well and to cherish the wonderful memories you created on 9/5/26”.
To address the rest of Ashley’s post: when a musician plays with the original recording the sheet music does not always match. Master Musicians knows all the songs she requested and being professional we can adjust the key we perform to match the key of the singer. This has nothing to do with her complaint. She did not want the songs with the vocals to be edited, so they weren’t. What she provided in July 2026 was the title and artist. Most couples give us a link of the versions they want when they tell us their songs. Ashley did not, which is not a problem as I can find that song and Artist on YouTube. If she wanted to be so specific, she should have shared that Spotify playlist she gave the DJ. Ashley never made it known that the version she wanted for her entrance is the one with a longer instrumental intro. So again, how would I know this.
Master Musicians prepared the recordings and music and gave it to the violinist who executed everything well. He was concerned that the Love Story version I gave him didn’t have the vocals and did play the version with the vocals, not realizing this is not what the bride wanted. He was also supposed to start Love Story about 3 minutes prior to officiant walking, but that was never cued to him either, only when they were about to walk down and he had to start the song immediately.
The only complaint that holds water is that the violinist used Taylor Swift’s vocal version of Love Story instead of only an instrumental track for the officiant’s entrance. Master Musicians does not feel this warrants a full refund.
In the 25+ years Master Musicians has been providing talent at weddings in South Florida. As owner of Master Musicians, I have never had to go through such lengths to defend our performance as I am doing so in this post. I am proud of the 5star reviews Master Musicians has received over the past few decades and we are always honored to be chosen to share our music and create the soundscape for guests to enjoy at our client’s affairs.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQRGtwTFHPc
= areas covered (up to 125 miles)
