Its All In the Mix

Music is the soul of a party. Ask Van Wilder, he'll tell ya. If you don't have it your party loses momentum and feels like its full of awkward pauses. Now I'm not saying blow your budget on the highest form of entertainment money can buy. Its important... but not THAT important.

At our wedding celebration we did have a DJ for the reception, but we had a boyfriend of a bridesmaid play DJ at the ceremony. It was a short ceremony so it seemed silly to hire someone for it. I made a CD (actually I emailed him the songs and he made it for me, very very last minute. Thanks Trav!) of the four songs I wanted to play during the ceremony and all he had to do was press play on the CD player. $AVINGS TIP: Using a CD of your songs, as opposed to hiring a pricey string quartet guarantees you'll not only know the songs that are being played but you get to say what is played. Be sure that your venue has access to a CD player/sound system before going this route. Luckily ours did. 


Now, remember we did have a DJ for our wedding. A "professional" DJ... Who two months before our wedding bailed on another gig. We used this to our leverage, telling him that we would prefer to pay him the day of the event to ensure he was there. A 'highly recommended" DJ who showed up and set up and then left, (not the biggest deal) but then showed back up after people had arrived, and even had the wedding party there... then had us hang out outside as he finished setting up and we had nothing to do... A "locally used" DJ who went up to my stepfather during the RECEPTION and asked him to pay him.

So, even though we had a couple different couples highly recommend this guy, who we had seen at football games (as well as weddings), would I recommend him? ABSOLUTELY NOT. There are good DJ's out there... there are bad ones... there are good ones who have bad days. These things happen. But there is a cheaper alternative that I did consider doing. Even made a playlist of songs I wanted played...

Its called an iPod wedding, you can get the full description here. While there are advantages (cost/ control) there are also disadvantages (equipment/emcee). There are things that do go wrong, but you can try and cut these by preparing for the worst. First of all, pack a backup iPod charger/charging system. Secondly, create CD's with all the songs, in order that you want played, be sure to give them to a wedding coordinator/personal assistant BEFORE leaving your home base. And if at all possible, load the playlist(s) onto another computer that will be present (say, the one used for your wedding slideshow) or another iPod if available. The last thing you want is to cheat your guests out of music in an attempt to save money.

Pros to having an iPod wedding include:

• Low cost, assuming it is not prohibitively expensive to rent sound equipment.
• Complete control over your wedding music, so you can make sure songs you dislike are not played.

Cons to having an iPod wedding include:

• Not having a professional DJ/MC who has performed at many similar events in the past.
• The "look" of an amateur job.
• Song flow can be awkward, but easily remedied by using Itunes on your laptop computer.
• An extra thing to worry about setting up and taking down
• Not having an emcee to direct control of the wedding (eating time, cake cutting time, dollar dance//parent dance announcement, etc...) easily remedied if you've got the right aspired friend/family member

More Tips

• Have a dedicated playlist for each piece of the ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, cake cutting, first dances, bouquet toss, garter throw and reception dance music.
• Delegate someone who can sporadically man the i-music (ie: changing between play lists etc.
• Having your reception venue equipped with a state of the art sound system is FABULOUS! Just make sure you, or they, have the proper accessories that you need to "hook-up" your I-Pod, or my preference...your MacBook.
• Don't worry if others are having fun or not! You picked the I-Music....so go out and enjoy YOUR music. If a happy couple is dancing, others WILL join in!
• To gather ideas for songs to download, add a few lines and instructions on your RSVP cards for invitees to tell you their favorite love/wedding songs. You'll probably receive a lot of the "standard" wedding songs, but you'll probably also gather some ideas you never would have thought of or learn  something new about your friends and family. (Who knew Aunt Betty's favorite song was "How Deep is Your Love" by the Bee Gees?!?!)