A couple local wedding bands have it down to a science.

After 17 years of playing Mexican-style weddings across Central California, Javier Vargas of Watsonville-based Mariachi California knows what it takes to turn a wedding party into a memorable bash. Recently his eight-piece outfit (three violins, two trumpets, bass guitarron, vihuela and classical guitar) performed for seven hours at a wedding. The kicker: They didn’t repeat a single song.

Your wedding band will literally set the tone of the entire day, so be sure to pick yours carefully.

If the band busts out a wildly inappropriate song for a wedding, like Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” or Guns N’ Roses’ “I Used to Love Her (But I Had to Kill Her),” it’s likely your grandma will remember that over the father-of-the-bride’s tearjerker of a toast.

You can take a few easy steps to avoid a wedding-band blunder. First, do your homework by looking up client reviews of wedding bands and DJs at www.gigmasters.com or www.weddingwire.com.

Another valuable tool: your ears. Before hiring a band, make sure you hear it play – if not live, at least on YouTube. It’s the only way to see if the music, style and vibe are good fits for your big day.

Many Monterey County weddings feature Mexican genres, such as Tex-Mex-style música norteña or mariachi, played by a live band.

Vargas, originally from the birthplace of mariachi, Tuxpan, Jalisco, says traditional staples like “Cielito Lindo,” “El Son de la Negra” and “Jesusita En Chihuahua” are actually part of his DNA. He’s a direct ancestor of the father of mariachi, Silvestre Vargas. “I’m proud to be related to these musicians,” he says.

When it comes to weddings with classic American soundtracks, there aren’t many locals who can claim to have performed at more than Steve Ezzo. He’s been playing guitar and singing in wedding bands since 1972 in Detroit.

Ezzo describes his first band as a “weird” polka-rock hybrid. Following stints in a Disneyland show and as the touring guitarist for Three Dog Night and Tom Jones, Ezzo found his way back to the wedding circuit.

Steve Ezzo & The Monterey Bay All-Stars have done between 30 and 45 weddings per year since 2000, when Ezzo launched his business in Monterey. (His 43 reviews on www.weddingwire.com are all five-stars.)

Depending on budget and venue size, the band features anywhere from five to nine talented singers and musicians, most of whom have been working with Ezzo for a decade.

Consistently putting on stellar shows, he says, is the easy part.

“Eighty percent of the job is the prep work leading up to the wedding,” he explains. “It’s a really long process from the initial phone call. It’s not uncommon to exchange 50-100 emails with a client before the wedding.”

The Michigan native says the most valuable lesson he’s learned: You’re only one part of a large team.

“The music is an important part,” Ezzo says, “but the real stars of the show are the bride and the groom, the family and friends.”