Weddings

[dislexsick]

Let me start of by saying I am not totally sure if this is the right area to post this;Please let me know if it is not. Anyways I will be playing my first wedding coming up here in may (he is a friend of mine). I normally spin pretty much anything electronic that i think will get the crowd going, and obviously a wedding is quite different from my normal gig. I have played a few HS graduation parties as favors for some friends but nothing on the scale of this wedding. This being said I came here for a few reasons.

1) What are some must have songs for weddings?
2) Has anyone everplayed a wedding before, if so what are some pointers/ tips that you have picked up with your experience
3)If you have played a wedding did you mc as well as dj, if so any pointers?

Thank you so much to anyone who took time out of their certainly busy lives to come here and throw a little help my way

As always Much Love
-Dis

[LiquidFusion]

First welcome to the Forums!

What you play for the crowd can be completely up to the bride and groom. There are songs like: KC and the Sunshine Band - Celebrate, Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feelin that also go well. Your best bet is to go through them first to see what they would like played, especially for first dance/mother son/father daughter/etc.

I have never played a wedding, but I've crashed a few..I mean..attended a few. The last one I went to, the father of the bride pretty much MC'd the entire time and helped with everything. The DJ's job was just to play music.

So other than that I have no other good pointers. My first wedding as a DJ was going to be a couple weeks ago, but I backed out since I had to lug my stuff four hours and I didn't want to be unprepared if shit hit the fan with my equipment.

Good luck!

[drzinc]

Wedding receptions can be the most fun but the most stressful gig you do. They can be simple or very elaborate. A simple reception dj wise will be a basic setup a pair of wireless mics family member does the MC duties. The dj plays dinner music, first dance music and then party music for the dance section. A good tip is to get a list of must plays and do not play from the bride and groom. A more complex reception will involve advanced lighting, mc duties, dry ice, projectors (av) custom gobo and will usually need an assistant. Pricing will be anything from $500 to well in the thousands. Remember this is a big day for the bride, groom and their friends and family so be at your best, be prepare and be professional in attitude and appearance.

[TwistedSweeper]

http://www.weddingmccoach.com/

http://www.mobilebeat.com/top-200/

These 2 links really helped me out when I started doing weddings. When I first started I swore I would never do weddings, I just wanted too play music. However it seems to be where the $$ is at. As drzinc said, weddings can be the most fun yet stressful job. I actually like them now.

[electricsmooth]

You may get more responses under mobile djs but I'll throw in my two cents.

I've done several weddings and you will need to talk to the bride and groom to pick songs for certain wedding events. they are as follows:

Wedding
1. Wedding Party walks in to ceremony
2. Bride walks in to ceremony
3. Wedding done and bride and groom start leaving. This one is not necessary (usually something upbeat like I feel Good, I got you -James Brown).

Reception
1. Cocktail/people settling in ( love songs, for example, Michael Buble, Sinatra, Motown, Celine Dion , Van Morrison, Whitney, etc.)
2. Wedding party enters (something upbeat)
3. Bride and groom walk in (again, something upbeat)
4. First dance
5. Father-daughter dance
6. Cake cutting (a lot of people like Sugar Sugar or Grow Old with you by Adam Sandler)
7. bouquet toss (usually single ladies beyonce)
8. Garter toss (something like What a man Salt n Pepe or Moves Like JAgger, etc)
9. Dancing time- I would stick with Top 40 and party favorites like Macarena. Make sure you have some stuff for the elder peeps as well like Twist and Shout- Beatles, etc.

[ampnation]

A good book to pick up to help you prepare and get ideas is, Peter Merry's "The Best Wedding Reception Ever"
It is written with the wedding party as an audience, but written by a DJ/MC and there are a lot of pointers for the budding wedding DJ in there.
If you're thinking you'll do more weddings in the future, see if you can line up a photographer or even videographer to document your performance for marketing purposes.
Try to make sure you have a backup plan for failure of every piece of gear you have. Check out Brian S. Redd's youtube videos on backup plans (search "briansredd backup" on youtube.) for a helpful guide. As he points out, it doesn't mean you have to have a duplicate for every piece of gear.

[theonlybman]

Is this a hipster wedding?