WEDDING TIPS FROM A WEDDING DJ
Hi all! Thank you for taking the time to read this! Wedding season 2024 has started off full force, full of weddings all over the state. As of June 5th, 2024, I have had the pleasure to work 8 weddings already this year, 31 more weddings coming up, with 11 other events still sprinkled in. I’m so excited to be a part of all of these! I realize I haven’t posted a blog yet this year, I wanted to take a quick minute (probably more than that) to post a few tips/ideas/recommendations from a seasoned wedding DJ that could be helpful to couples!
1. In many instances, the ceremony and reception are in different locations. Ceremonies are usually held outdoors, with no cover. Wedding DJs usually provide an additional set up for ceremonies, while the main set up is located where the reception is taking place. It is absolutely pivotal that the DJ has a cover of some sort for the ceremony, as the threat of inclement weather or overwhelming heat could do severe damage to the equipment. Whether it is an overhang of a building, or a pop-up tent, the equipment must absolutely be shaded to ensure its proper operation. Many times, people get concerned that these covers might appear in photos, but they are always off to the side and never get in the way of any of the beautiful ceremony photos. This is something that is included in most wedding DJ contracts, but there are times where the couples overlook this, so just as reminder… Please make sure there’s some shade for the equipment! Electronics and high temps/rain do not mix well.
2. On to fun things! I absolutely love the shoe game. It’s a game in which both partners sit down in chairs, facing away from eachother. Each partner will be holding one of their own shoes, and one of their partner’s. I like to usually have a member of the wedding party come up with a list of about 10-15 questions and depending on who they believe the correct answer is, they raise the appropriate shoe! The reason I love this, is because many times there are people in the audience that have not seen the couple in a while, and it’s a fun little way to catch up with the couple’s life in a humorous, engaging way. So to all couples, I’d highly suggest adding this to your reception as long as you trust a wedding party member or family member to come up with some good questions!
3. Let’s talk about your first dance! Many times, the couple would like to dance to the full song, which is absolutely great! The last few weddings I have worked, the couple has practiced their first dance to the entire length of the song, which is always elegant! However, there are other times as well that the couple would rather not dance to the full song. In those cases, there are a couple options. The first being to simply just fade out of the song before moving on to other dances, but the other option I’m personally very fond of. The couple dances to their first song, and about halfway through, the DJ invites all couples in attendance to join the dance floor, so they can surround the bride and groom and dance with their significant others in the process. This makes for great photos for the photographers, and helps take the attention off the couple! I’ve had quite a few couples also ask to do this for parent dances as well. Pretty fun way to share the dance floor with all your people and share a special moment with them.
4. Another dance I absolutely love is the anniversary dance. For those unfamiliar with it, it is a dance that starts off with all couples on the dance floor, and every 30-45 seconds or so, the DJ mentions a number of years. If that couple has been married for that amount of time or less, the couple exits the dance floor. The objective is to find the couple in attendance that has been married the longest period of time. Once there is one couple left on the dance floor, I personally love walking up to the dance floor and ask the newlyweds to join me, as the winning couple introduces themselves, announce how long they’ve been married for and offer words of advice to the newlyweds. Truly think it’s a beautiful opportunity to present some of the older couples at your wedding with a chance to remember their wedding day and reminisce on all the years that they have spent together.
5. Let’s talk about reception music!! Every wedding is different, as far as the crowd and the music preferences! There are times where couples submit a long playlist for the entire night and request that the DJ does not deviate from it, as it’s what they have worked on. That is perfectly fine and dandy, but something to remember is that there is a vast array of music preferences throughout the crowd, and it is tremendously important to be able to read the room, feel the vibes and adjust as needed. I personally recommend that couples submit about 10-15 must play songs that they’d like to hear during the open dancing section, and then trust the DJ to feel out the crowd for most of the open dancing section, take requests and make sure there’s constant movement on the dance floor! I would truly say that 99.9% of the time that couples submit a long must play playlist, halfway through the open dancing section they ask for the DJ to use his expertise to make sure people are dancing!
6. This next one has really been taking off over the last couple of years, and I’m a big fan of. Private last dances! These work best if there’s a sendoff of some sort at the end of the night, as you can have a public last dance where everyone dances, then the DJ instructs the guests to head outside and prepare for the sendoff. The newly married couple remains inside the venue and on the dance floor, and they get one last song to dance to with each other. One last special moment between just the two of them. There were dozens of people surrounding them minutes ago, asking for pictures, dancing with them, drinks flowing, craziness surrounding them in general. But before they get to walk out and join their crowd again, I think it’s great to get one last song for just them. A cherry on top, if you will! Having said that, you don’t need to be having a sendoff in order for this to work. Your wedding DJ could also ask people to either make their way outside of the venue for a few minutes, or the guests could also just be seated so the newlyweds could share the floor together one last time.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Cheers to wedding season!
