So I had my first wedding mess up happen last saturday

[Icefrogg]

I did a wedding last saturday night...it was at a country club nice location. So the bride and groom picked out most of the playlist and had sent me over the order of operations and introduction list. There list of introductions for the bridal party was almost 30 people...they had the parents, 4 ring bearers, 5 flower girls, 5 junior bridesmaids, 6 bridesmaids and groomsmen, made of honor, matron of honor...you get the point

so I get there plenty of time to set up...I meet the coordinator at the venue...she asked me if I had the list of intros and timeline..I showed her the files on the computer (this is where I messed up, I should have printed this out rather than just look off the computer...you live and you learn)

So she tells me she is going to signal me to start introducing them from the other side of the room because they are coming in from the sitting area...so she gives me a signal right on time with the timeline....I start playingi pink-lets get this party started for the bridal party to walk down the aisle to...I introduce the brides parents...then this other lady comes running over who works at the venue asking me what order am I doing the bridesmaids because they don't have the order.

I show her on the screen and she's like she needs to get a pen and paper and write it all down...so at this time the brides parents are standing up no one else has walked down and I'm not sure what to do...so I just faded out of that song and went into a slow song and she came back I wrote everything down for her and then we re did the whole thing.

So second time around I'm introducing everyone (all 30 of them) and I have only 3 minutes and some change to do so in for the song....I was rushing I guess and I left out a bridesmaids and groomsman. I didn''t realize it until after the fact....so during dinner I went and apoligized to the bride and groom several times and explained about the coordinator not knowing the order...they said it wasn't a big deal.

after dinner I went into dance music and the end of the night the dance floor was packed. I took some video with my iphone (crappy quality but you get the idea)





Sometimes I wouldn't mind having a assistant or a MC for times like this. You live and you learn.

[DJ Donnie Lewis]

First problem was what seems to be a lack of planning. You should always meet with the couple to discuss their evening. Try to let them leave knowing everything that is going on.

Second. You should really line the group up in the order they gave you. Make sure to print the docs and give a copy to the venue and photographers. Especially a timeline.

With a group that large maybe talk to the couple about having a song for the parents and flower girls/ring bearers and another song for the bridal party.

Seems like you already realize this but the planning aspect is so crucial. We do ours 6 weeks before the wedding. This seems to be the best time. Less hectic for the couple. Easy for you to get what you need done and less chance that changes will be made. The next thing we do is a week prior I'll make a call/email to the bride just to see if there were any changes. If not your ready to rock.

[mrkleen]

First problem was what seems to be a lack of planning. You should always meet with the couple to discuss their evening. Try to let them leave knowing everything that is going on.

Second. You should really line the group up in the order they gave you. Make sure to print the docs and give a copy to the venue and photographers. Especially a timeline.

With a group that large maybe talk to the couple about having a song for the parents and flower girls/ring bearers and another song for the bridal party.

Seems like you already realize this but the planning aspect is so crucial. We do ours 6 weeks before the wedding. This seems to be the best time. Less hectic for the couple. Easy for you to get what you need done and less chance that changes will be made. The next thing we do is a week prior I'll make a call/email to the bride just to see if there were any changes. If not your ready to rock.

Good advice....especially the part in BOLD.

As a wedding DJ you need to get out from behind your table from time to time, to talk to people and ensure everything is running smooth - sounds good etc.

[KLH]

Good post. I'd rep, but I'm out for the moment.

-KLH

[bumpyjonas]

A recently turned down a wedding last month due to a large wedding party with 30+ participants. The bride and groom did not have a wedding planner or coordinator for their event.

During my pre meeting with the B&G I made the suggestion that since they lacked a coordinator I would have to utilize at a minimum 2 assistants at a added cost, to ensure the wedding party could be accommodated due to the size and to prevent mishaps during the entrance. They declined to pay the extra cost and I declined the event. It was just not worth the headache.




Taptalking with the IPhone...

[Icefrogg]

First problem was what seems to be a lack of planning. You should always meet with the couple to discuss their evening. Try to let them leave knowing everything that is going on.

I did meet with them and we stayed in contact through email the whole time. I shouldn't assume anything but she sent me a email with the timeline and the introduction order after they met with the venue...so I assumed that they had planned this out with them and we were all on the same page.

Second. You should really line the group up in the order they gave you. Make sure to print the docs and give a copy to the venue and photographers. Especially a timeline.

Yeah after the fact I realized it would have been helpful to have a assistant to give me a hand with that part. trying to do it myself inbetween songs (because before hand was just soft music for the cocktail hour) to line up 30 people including kids would have been a challege by myself and during a song.

Also I left this part out...
so the cake cutting was in the other room which I didn't know they were going to do it there..before hand. So the coordinator told me she would have me get everyone's attention at 9:30 to do the cake, followed by the bouqet and garter...I had select songs to play for these from the bride and groom. well since it was all taking place in the other room she was going to have one of her people stand between me and her, for her to signal him to signal me.

So I get everyone to go over at 9:30...I would say there was like 125-150 people at this wedding....
so now I can't see anything because people are standing all in the way. the guy waves his hand at me meaning to signal the bouqet toss...so I call all the single ladies...but then I realize...I am not going to know exactly when to count one two three because I can't see if everyones ready. So I just winged it and waited a few seconds and was like one two three.
then the guy starts signaling to me and then the coordinator comes over and says to let all the guests know to come back to the main area because we are going to do the garter on the dance floor instead (Which is what they should have done in the first place).
so once everyone was back in there things went fine.

All in all when I was packing up the bride and groom came over and still thanked me so I think they were ok with everything and I apoligized again about the mess up in the beginning. at the end of the day there was lots of dancing and people having a ton of fun so I guess that out weighs the cluster of the venue.

[Icefrogg]

A recently turned down a wedding last month due to a large wedding party with 30+ participants. The bride and groom did not have a wedding planner or coordinator for their event.

During my pre meeting with the B&G I made the suggestion that since they lacked a coordinator I would have to utilize at a minimum 2 assistants at a added cost, to ensure the wedding party could be accommodated due to the size and to prevent mishaps during the entrance. They declined to pay the extra cost and I declined the event. It was just not worth the headache.




Taptalking with the IPhone...

Yeah I never asked about the wedding party when we first met and talked about everything. I'm just chalking this up as a lesson learned

[RodneyL]

I had a similar slip up last month. But the fault was all mine and it resulted in my first non 5 star rating on Wedding Wire. (4/5 but I hate anything less than 5).

I had the names and the correct order on my sheet, but while reading the list I skipped a groomsman (happened to be her brother). The client mentioned this in her review and gave me a 4/5 on quality.

Live and learn. I have begin printing the bridal party names in much larger font and bold so they are easier to read.

[SummitAudioDJ]

I print everything out, inlcuding 3 copies of time line (1 for me and one for photographer and venue) , and line up everybody myself. It not only ensures you have the right order since there can be last minute changes but it allows you to introduce yourself to the B&G's VIP's expecially the parents who are more than likely paying for your services. Also keep a pen handy for those last minute changes and to cross off each couple as you announce them.

I also keep 3 copies of all the special songs for the evening : (1) a pair of CD's, (2) Flash drive, and (3) Computer. I can luckily play both the flash and cd's in my UCD-200 player or computer.

[ampnation]

I experienced the same thing at my first wedding. Had the list on the computer, not printed. It was a matter of running out of time. IIRC, I was brought in at about 6 weeks prior to the wedding and I had other priorities to get ready since I hadn't planned on gigging and was called in by a friend who pleaded. I had a couple people helping me, neither all the way through the event and I had one handwrite the list and I couldn't read it very well, especially since by the time the wedding party started entering it was getting dark and we were outdoors.

I had another big mistake, that being the rig I put together last minute seemed to malfunction leaving me to my final backup... iTunes on my laptop which isn't optimized... iTunes will, and did, hiccup a lot. Later I tracked the problem with my equipment down to the hastily ripped music collection from my CD's where I had set the sample rate higher than my equipment specs allowed (48kHz vs. 44.1kHz) Everything I had already ripped would play just fine, but most of the songs I had specifically for the event were recent downloads which got converted to mp3 @ 320kbps using the same 48kHz. If I had realized this was my problem, I could've worked around it with more grace, but since it was new equipment to me (bought used from GC) I thought the equipment was simply malfunctioning. I had tested it at home but had "lucked out" and picked songs that were properly encoded for the equipment.

And finally, the other problem I had was not arriving earlier even though I had the option. I could have set up in the morning but since I was traveling about 100 miles to the venue, I allowed 2 hours of setup time for the evening event outdoors. Once the light became scarce, I didn't have enough light where I setup to see black cables in dark brown dirt.

A lot of lessons learned. The biggest -- don't take the gig if you don't know you're ready. I did the best I could under the circumstances and even though I pulled it off nominally, I wasn't pleased with my performance.