Is this even possible? I very much like doing things on my own but I'm wondering if DJ's actually do ceremonys and receptions by themselves if the two are at different locations, (like a church for the reception and then the reception at a hotel ball room across town.
I just did my first paid gig. My work hired me to be the DJ for our holiday party. I learned a lot, and I'm now looking forward to doing more events.
If you mean completely by yourself, then in the vast majority of cases, no. For most weddings, there is far too little time between the two events, plus it means leaving your gear unattended in one location or the other, which can easily lead to that gear being damaged or stolen.
When I get wedding gigs, I often get both the ceremony and the reception, but they are usually held at the same venue, just in different areas of that venue. Even so, I have to have an assistant, and we set up the reception gear first, test it, then set up the ceremony gear and test it. Once that's done, my assistant will usually go back to the reception area to keep an eye on the gear while I run the ceremony. Once the ceremony is over, I pack up what I can quickly and move to the reception area while my assistant switches places and packs up the rest of the ceremony gear. Meanwhile, I've started the music for cocktail hour as the guests trickle in from the ceremony.
IMO, there's just no way to do it without an assistant unless you are either doing the reception in a hall where there is staff to watch your gear while you are at the reception, or if there is a large time gap between the ceremony and the reception (2+ hours minimum, and probably at least 3). That's one of many reasons why weddings cost more.
Yes it is possible depending on the norm in your area. For instance where I am people generally have ceremony in mid afternoon, 2-3pm, then reception doesn't start until 6-6.30pm. Cocktail hour here is unheard of, and due to a lack of suitable venues most times they are at different locations. For instance my own wedding was ceremony in local gardens out in the suburbs at 2pm, reception wasn't until 6pm and was located in the city centre with almost 25km in between the two. Obviously if you are having ceremony at 4/5pm, then guests drive to a cocktail hour bar at a different venue, then reception starting at 6pm you are going to have issues by yourself.
Here in my area (San Francisco Bay Area, California), weddings are usually something like this:
4pm-4:30pm Ceremony
5pm-6pm Cocktail Hour/Wedding Party Photos
6pm-7:30pm Grand Entrance/Dinner/Toasts
7:30-8:30pm Cake Cutting, Bouquet/Garter Toss, often a slideshow/video
8:30-10+pm Dancing, starting with 1st Dance, Father/Daughter, Mother/Son, then open dancing
So, even though I may only be in another area of the same venue, I've only got, at best, 30 minutes between the ceremony and cocktail hour, and I usually have to chase down the officiant and de-mic them, pack up the gear as much as I can, focusing on the smaller items (mics, music players, etc.) - all while people are moving around like a flock of geese and guests are asking questions or complimenting me, eating up precious minutes - and then quickly get over to the reception area at least 5 minutes before I need to start playing.
Here, cocktail hour is at the reception area, and is to keep people entertained while the wedding party is having their pictures taken. It's very, very rare that we don't have cocktail hour, and even for church weddings, I'm often involved in the ceremony, and things are usually scheduled for a direct trip from the church to the reception venue. We don't generally have 2-3 hours between them - that would be VERY unusual here.
But that goes to show that you need to know YOUR market, because local traditions are different, and you have to be able to meet LOCAL expectations, whatever they happen to be. What someone does somewhere else may not be especially important or relevant to you.
That's why, even though I've DJed something like 260+ weddings, I wouldn't presume to try to DJ one in another part of the country, much less in a different country, until I'd learned the local traditions. I'd love to check out an Aussie wedding, though!
[QUOTE=DJ Troy;467803
But that goes to show that you need to know YOUR market, because local traditions are different, and you have to be able to meet LOCAL expectations, whatever they happen to be. What someone does somewhere else may not be especially important or relevant to you.
That's why, even though I've DJed something like 260+ weddings, I wouldn't presume to try to DJ one in another part of the country, much less in a different country, until I'd learned the local traditions. I'd love to check out an Aussie wedding, though![/QUOTE]
This, 100% this. Our wedding season is through winter, very different to America where you would be knee deep in snow. Cause it's just too damn hot to be in suits and layered wedding dresses through summer. Thus our winter(especially in northern Aus. Where I am) is very mild. An extremely cold winter would get down to 8 degrees C and average would be about 12 degrees C. Almost perfect weather for formal attire. Thus mostly outside ceremonies in gardens/beaches and inside receptions where there is aircon.
DJ Troy is correct.....
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We do this all the time. What i do is set up at the reception site, and then make over to the ceremony location. Everything is set up at the reception site i just need to drop the computer on it when i get there. I play one song at the ceremony location afterwards, and since it's a small setup the hardest part is rolling all the cables up. I honestly probably use 300'+ of cable. I have powered speakers. Passive ones would be so nice for a ceremony. Anyways then i head over to the reception site and plug the computer in and bam. I'm ready to go. If there are people there before me, they never see me setting anything up. It is however easier to have 2 people. For sure a lot less stress.
Most of our Ceremony/Reception combos generally happen within the same venue. Either way the size of our wedding setup requires 2 people to be working. If you try to battle a ceremony and reception on your own there is so much room for error. The stress level will be through the roof too. ESPECIALLY if they are in two different venues. If you don't have an assistant, I would recommend trying to accept ceremonies that are in the same venue as the reception, just for the sake of your own nerves as well as to ensure both portions of the night go off without a hitch! Good luck though if you will be attempting this!
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