Feel Good Inc.

Feel Good Inc.'s own wedding page sums up its musicians in one clause: "professionell ausgebildet (Master of Arts in Music)." No names, no instruments, no school. Click through to the band's own "Band" page and the vagueness disappears. Kevin Schneeberger, vocals and guitar, holds a Master's diploma in Pop Vocals from the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) and has been singing and playing in bands for more than 15 years, with concerts in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, England, Scotland and the USA; beyond Feel Good Inc. he performs with a band called Norman Die, played a multi-week England tour as guitarist for Slimboy, and writes and produces songs for artists at home and abroad through Peermusic Germany. He also teaches voice. Andreas Achermann, keyboard, earned his Master of Arts in Pop Piano at the same school after studying by way of Freiburg im Breisgau, and has toured with Luca Hänni, Brandy Buttler, Lea Lu, Steff la Cheffe and Skor. Lukas, drums (the site never gives his surname), graduated from Hochschule Luzern with a Master of Arts in Music and teaches drums between gigs with Polo Hofer, Marc Storace, Ritschi, Tinkabelle and the Mountain Swing Big Band, plus assorted jazz groups. Benedict, bass (also no surname published), holds a Master's in Jazz from ZHdK and lists Heimweh, James Arthur, Anna Känzig, Tobey Lucas, Lea Lu, Shriduna, Torp and Edmar Castaneda among the acts he's backed. The site's own summary line says every member has completed a 5-year training with a Master's degree at a Swiss music college. On this evidence, the headline claim undersells rather than oversells what's actually documented.

It isn't a fixed 4-piece that turns up and plays a set; it reconfigures across the day, and each configuration is really a different act. For the ceremony, Kevin plays solo on guitar and vocals, or as a duo with Andreas on piano. Either way, they rehearse up to 5 of the couple's own song choices in advance and work out the sequence, the processional, the ring exchange, the first kiss, directly with the officiant. The ceremony setup runs on "a small professional sound system and minimal equipment," which the site says makes it flexible enough for a church, a chapel, an open-air meadow, a civil registry office, or a boat. After the ceremony, a bassist and drummer join to make the Apéro-Trio: piano, double bass and drums turning known evergreens and pop songs into deliberately understated, jazz-inflected background music, loud enough to register and quiet enough that guests can still talk over it. Add a singer and it becomes the Apéro-Quartett, which the site says can also run through the wedding dinner or the gaps between courses, and slide straight into party music without a break. For the dance floor, the full Partyband works from a repertoire the site describes as more than 8 hours long: jazz, blues, soul, funk, R&B, disco, rock and pop hits "from every era" on the main page, plus rock'n'roll, 80s and current chart hits on the dedicated party page. If a couple's favourite song isn't in any of that, the band says it will learn it, for the ceremony and for the first dance both.

What actually shows up, and when

The FAQ page is far more specific about logistics than any of the marketing pages, which is unusual and worth taking at face value. The band normally arrives 1 hour before the ceremony starts and 3 hours before guests reach the apéro or evening venue, to set up and run a short soundcheck; the exact timing still gets worked out with the couple beforehand. Space requirements are stated too: the jazz trio needs at least 2m by 2.5m at the apéro, the full band at least 3m by 4m in the evening. Parking gets a number as well, 4 spaces for the whole band, just 1 if they're booked for the ceremony alone.

On equipment, the FAQ draws a clear line rather than leaving it vague. Travel costs, administration, and "a professional music and lighting system" are folded into the quoted price, with no add-on costs, according to the site. Guests are welcome to plug a phone, iPod or laptop into the band's own sound system between sets (not after teardown), and get a wireless microphone free of charge for speeches. The musicians' own instruments, though, are off-limits except by special request. An outdoor set is fine by arrangement, but the FAQ is blunt that a weatherproof cover has to go up first, because water reaching the stage risks the equipment.

A pool, not 4 irreplaceable musicians

The FAQ answers a question a couple might not think to ask until it's too late: what happens if a musician can't make it. Feel Good Inc.'s answer is that every position has several trained substitutes drawn from what it calls its musician pool, all at the same training level, who already know the full repertoire because the swap happens often enough to keep the whole pool rehearsed together. The site also states that outright cancellation, the kind that would forfeit the fee and force a scramble for a stand-in band, has never happened in the band's history. That's a claim rather than a guarantee, but it's a specific, checkable one rather than a vague reassurance.

Booking, payment, and the price nobody prints

No CHF figure appears anywhere on the site. What's published instead is the process. A contract goes out once a date is provisionally agreed, the couple signs and returns it, digitally or by post, and the booking counts as confirmed once the signed copy comes back. Payment is due within 14 days of the wedding, wired to the account named in the contract. Song requests for the ceremony are wanted at least 1 month ahead. The band plays "throughout Switzerland and in neighbouring countries," and because travel costs already sit inside the quoted fee, there's no separate mileage line to budget for. Overnight accommodation isn't automatic either; the site says it generally isn't needed for a wedding around Zurich or Lucerne, and gets arranged individually everywhere else.

The English site is real, not a stub

For a tenant built around foreign and destination couples, this matters more than it would elsewhere. Feel Good Inc.'s whole site exists in a genuine English translation, not a homepage teaser with everything else left in German. The FAQ, with all of the logistics above (parking counts, space measurements, payment terms, the substitute policy) reads the same in English as it does in German. It isn't flawless, though: a direct comparison of the German and English pages turns up one slip, where the English partner list mislabels a celebrant, repeating "Timeless Vows" (actually the separately listed wedding planner) under "Wedding speaker" instead of naming the correct celebrant, Tätschmeischter, that the German page names there. It's a translation error rather than a factual one about the band itself, but it's a fair reason to confirm any specific point by phone or the contact form rather than take every line of the English copy on trust.

The partners it names, DJ alternative included

The FAQ lists working relationships rather than a generic vendor wall: 2 venues (Gasthaus Schupfen in Diessenhofen and Schloss Schadau in Thun), 2 wedding planners (Liebesding and Timeless Vows, run by Aleksandra Peiry), 2 celebrants (Tätschmeischter and Liebesbekenntnis), and, for couples who'd rather hire a DJ than a band, 2 named wedding DJs, including DJ Benz. The party page repeats that DJ recommendation directly, in the middle of making its own case for live music over recorded, which is an unusual thing for a vendor to volunteer about a competitor.

The credentials hold up, the price doesn't

What holds this listing together is that the specifics keep checking out rather than dissolving on contact. The testimonial wall on the site runs from 2015 to 2024 and reads like it was actually written by different couples, one of them describing a 3-hour set played straight through without a break. The training behind the vague "Master of Arts in Music" line belongs to 4 real, named musicians with real, checkable touring histories, once a reader goes past the landing page to find them. The FAQ answers logistics questions, parking, space, arrival timing, what happens if someone falls ill, in more detail than most bands manage, in English as well as German. The one thing genuinely missing is a number: no price appears anywhere on the site, so a couple only finds out whether the band fits their budget by asking for a quote.