Cocktail/Dinner Music

For those of you that do weddings, how often do you not provide dinner or cocktail music? Have you ever had a client that said they don't need or want cockktail or dinner music, that it is a waste of money and only want you to provide 4 hours of solid dance music.
I have never seen this brought up before, so I'm curious.

I have never had anyone not want us to provide some kind of background music for cocktail/dinner. I guess there will be a first time, someday.

On occasion we've not been needed during dinner. We're already set up on location so it's chair time for us. If there's gonna be a longer lead time, we can drive over to a restaurant in town for a bite. Dinner and cocktails isn't an upcharge... the cost to the client would be based upon our scheduled start time anyhow.

This scenario is typical for wintertime engagements like awards banquets and the like that precede a dance. You've got a group of luminaries passing the microphone around, patting each other on the back and making long speeches.

Wolfie finds a chair somewhere out of the way and tries to stay awake. :)

Thoughts?

Always provided background music by request of the B&G. Never had to play the best of Marcel Marso during dinner.

Occasionally the B&G will hire a harpist or string quartet for the cocktail hour. Down here we have a lot of beach weddings with a tropical theme (no tuxes, just flowered shirts & light colored dockers), so steel drums during the cocktail hour is also common.