DJTT Tips/Advice - Wedding Music
DJTT Tips/Advice - Wedding Music Posted on: 05.09.2012 by Lessie Becoats So I'm a groomsman in a wedding and I was asked by my friend to also DJ the wedding. The thing is, I've never been to a wedding before :O. I'm more of a club DJ that plays mostly house music. So I thought why not create a topic that helps everyone out, you never know if you'll be asked so why not have a step into the right direction.First and foremost - DO NOT FOLLOW songs listed here to a T. Ask the people who are getting married what kind music they want and do not want. As I find music and music is suggested (if you post try and post a youtube link also!) I will update this post The types of music for certain parts of the wedding Cocktail Dinner Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love Dance Time! Abba - Dancing Queen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y62OlGvC-bk | |
| Lessie Becoats 30.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by ToOntown
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| Lessie Becoats 30.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by SirReal
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| Antonetta Wikel 29.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by Fressure
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| Layne Koop 28.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by Fressure
Because there will not be a gap. Because before the first dance, you will pre-stage the Father of the bride, and Mother of the groom right next to the dance floor. Because when the first dance is over, the groom to escort the bride to her father, and pass his new wife to her father. Because you told him to do that ahead of time. Right....???? |
| Shonda Soulier 28.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by Fressure
The last wedding I did the wedding party did the grand entrance then immediately went into first dance (no filler music in between). Then they ate dinner, then did "special dances" after dinner. So I played my cocktail hour/dinner playlist during that down time. The one before that they did all of their dances (first, father/daughter, mother/son) right in a row. I didn't play anything in between. Just made the announcements. If there's ever a time where there's longer than a 1-2 minute gap, just bring your cocktail hour mix back in ever so slightly. It will save you from awkward silences. |
| Elmira Billard 29.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by oliosky
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| Antonetta Wikel 30.09.2012 | Please don't tell me the "old folks" tunes were 70's & 80's tunes. |
| Lessie Becoats 30.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by ToOntown
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| Shonda Soulier 30.09.2012 | Nice work, buddy. No sweat, right? Spotify is my crutch too. It's impossible to have everything people like, way to be resourceful. |
| Lessie Becoats 30.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by SirReal
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| Lessie Becoats 30.09.2012 | My thing is that I'm horrible at MCing, I just don't have "that voice" and that kind of deters me. I spoke a little for the wedding toevening , but I didn't really enjoying doing it. I have a bit of a speech impediment where words tend to slur a bit so I had to talk really carefully which I'm not a fan of |
| Antonetta Wikel 30.09.2012 | Check her ID first, my friend. |
| Lessie Becoats 30.09.2012 | Annnnd I already have a teenage girl from the wedding friend me on Facebook wtf I didn't even talk to her lol |
| Antonetta Wikel 30.09.2012 | Awesome!!! Glad to hear it went well and it sounds like you could parlay it into more gigs with the photographer(if that's what you want). I figure, if you make enough money doing a wedding or 2 to pay for gear or software then everyting after that is gravy. |
| Lessie Becoats 30.09.2012 | So wedding was a success. Since I was a groomsman I was able to mingle with people during dinner and what not. I let it slip that this was my first wedding and people were like during be nervous you'll do a great job. Throughout the wedding I had people coming up to me saying awesome job, great job keep it up, etc. Note this crowd was much much older so my dance floor would have periods where it was completely empty, then I'd drop a song and people would hop on. Since it was older folks they preferred to sit and chat, DO NOT get discouraged if this happens. They'd get up for one song and immediately sit down. People are still listening to the music you play even if they aren't dancing. I also tried something I've never done before. I used Spotify along with my tracks (incoming wtf are you doing). It worked wonders, a lot of old people were requesting songs that I didn't happen to have but I was able to pull up ANYTHING. I kept everything simple, I'd let songs fade out and go to the next one since I was hopping all over the play BPM wise, granted at the end of the evening when all the old people left and there were a few younger people left I went into Top 40 mode and was blending. I had a guy give me 20 bucks because I was able to play a slow song for him and his wife to dance too, (a lot of other couples danced along also which was cool). It was a Boys Like Girls Song ft Taylor Swift, good song for the collection. Thank you Spotify! In the beginning I wanted children and parents to get up and have some fun so I played, I Gotta Feeling, Raise Your Glass, Aaron's Party, some T Swift, and Call Me Maybe, and so one and so on. The floor stayed packed and till I got a shit ton of "old people music request" and shifted over. Oh well. The photographer was a friend of a friend and was like hey man do you have a business card, I do some weddings and some people need DJs. We exchanged cards. Networking! Overall it was a great experience trying something out of norm, however, weddings really aren't my thing. I prefer club/bar djing and getting people crazy with house music. Granted I'm still pretty young, 22, but this may be something for when I'm older. |
| Darlene Strohbeck 30.09.2012 | When is this wedding? I have a playlist of about 40GB that I use at every wedding. I can give you an excel copy of the list, but it would take you forever to download all the music, and cost you a lot of money to purchase. |
| Lessie Becoats 01.10.2012 | Wedding is toevening , I will let everyone know how it goes! All my gear is set up, I have use a mic though and MC, but first time for everything! |
| Layne Koop 30.09.2012 | OK....how'd it go? Any lessons learned you can share with everyone? |
| Antonetta Wikel 29.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by Fressure
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| Lessie Becoats 29.09.2012 | Starting to get those nervous jitters :x |
| Lessie Becoats 29.09.2012 | Im pretty much just gonna let entire songs play out :X |
| Rey Holubar 28.09.2012 | @D-Kem and soundinmotiondj, Thanks for your answers. scamo |
| Lessie Becoats 28.09.2012 | Doing logistics tomorrow at the rehearsal. This wedding is going to be a little different since I'm an actual groomsman also. I really need to learn how to emcee >_> However, for cocktail/dinner, I'm just gonna have a itunes playlist and use the remote app on my iphone. Then once first dance, father/daughter, etc starts I'm on decks for the remaining 2.5 hours |
| Layne Koop 28.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by Fressure
Because there will not be a gap. Because before the first dance, you will pre-stage the Father of the bride, and Mother of the groom right next to the dance floor. Because when the first dance is over, the groom to escort the bride to her father, and pass his new wife to her father. Because you told him to do that ahead of time. Right....???? |
| Shonda Soulier 28.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by Fressure
The last wedding I did the wedding party did the grand entrance then immediately went into first dance (no filler music in between). Then they ate dinner, then did "special dances" after dinner. So I played my cocktail hour/dinner playlist during that down time. The one before that they did all of their dances (first, father/daughter, mother/son) right in a row. I didn't play anything in between. Just made the announcements. If there's ever a time where there's longer than a 1-2 minute gap, just bring your cocktail hour mix back in ever so slightly. It will save you from awkward silences. |
| Elmira Billard 29.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by oliosky
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| Layne Koop 28.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by scamo
Wedding DJs provide a service. This is not art. This is not about you. This is not an education session on the nuances of some sub-sub-sub genre of EDM. This is not a DJ battle where you need to throw out every mixing trick you know. I mix only during the dance portion of the evening....and even then, I do it sparingly. Wedding receptions are multi generation events. What are the odds that Grandma is going to like Dubstep? What are you going to do to ensure that Grandma hears something that she likes? What if there are kids at the wedding? Time Life Music, Rhino, and others have good box sets that cover the "wedding friendly" genres: 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, classic rock, love songs, trash disco, and even country. My local warehouse club has a reasonable selection on any given day....each box set is 60-ish songs for $20. All "familiar favorites" that will go over well during dinner or other non-dancing times. If you stick to a single label for the box sets, duplicated songs will be rare. For $100 you can pick up 300 songs that will provide you with a solid back catalog for any future weddings you do. |
| Lauretta Ehrhorn 28.09.2012 | In response to your question Scamo you are providing a service, not a showcase of your skills and coolest tracks. It's certain you will end up playing tracks you aren't into to satisfy the majority. There's still pleasure to be gained by providing a great evening for everybody even if you're not into every track personally. |
| Rey Holubar 28.09.2012 | My situation, we are just starting off, first gig tomorrow actually, and believeing ahead towards the future and hoping more gigs will come, but we aren't yet pushing the fact we are "for rent", mixing is still a hobby for us. So believeing ahead, I've also been wondering if weddings are even something I'd want to do, if someone asked us. I realize it is an opportunity to be paid fairly well, but I am not sure I could break the bit of style we've built up over the past year and a half to do a wedding. Let me ask this another way. Do you really have to break from your personal style of music/ mixing to do a wedding successfully, if your style doesn't even come close to things like classic rock, rock, raggea, top 40, etc.? I mean, couldn't you say "I'd be glad to do your wedding, if my music and my style is what you want?" It might lower chances for a wedding gig. Yes, I understand that. I don't see that as a bad thing really though, because I know I can be sure to be "right" with my own style. Thoughts? scamo |
| Johnetta Olewine 27.09.2012 | Actually, one more tip. Make sure your gear , including mic's etc, is super reliable and are all tested at the venue. The music stopping or your mic not working during speeches at someones wedding is a cock up of monumental proportions. |
| Johnetta Olewine 27.09.2012 | 4 bits of advice from me: - pace yourself, its a fucking long time playing music you aren't super into - have plenty of tunes people know, and plenty more for backup, and more for backup again - don't bother mixing every tune - play Outkast - Hey Ya |
| Lessie Becoats 27.09.2012 | Question - When I'm going from the First Dance to Father/Daughter what am I supposed to play for that gap |
| Lessie Becoats 25.09.2012 | Wonder if a Levels/Somebody That I used to Know mash up would be way too much. hmm |
| Lessie Becoats 25.09.2012 | Shhhhiiiit friend just asked me if I could do dinner music now also, whelp |
| Lessie Becoats 25.09.2012 | Is it in bad taste to play songs that say damn or ass? Like I don't know why Get Low is so popular lol |
| Layne Koop 24.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by Fressure
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| Lessie Becoats 24.09.2012 | Man why am I having so much trouble believeing of Top 40 music to mix in |
| Lauretta Ehrhorn 21.09.2012 | Sack off the grids and match by ear. Also consider key and mood for transition. I match all my keys by ear with an endless encoder mapped to fine tune. |
| Ciara Cuttill 20.09.2012 | pandora "wedding channel" streaming on my phone plugged into my mixer ... hahaha, I only did this when everyone was just eating and whatnot, when theygot to dance I changed things up. :thumbsup: |
| Elmira Billard 20.09.2012 |
Originally Posted by Fressure
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