When is your DJ starting?

i agree with you.  I''ve booked my DJ for 4 hours, and I''d like those 4 hours to be dedicated to dancing.  However, I also want dinner music.  Haven''t done it yet, but I''m going to see if any friends around have a big stereo (wouldn''t be surprised) and I''ll just burn some CDs.  I feel like this music doesn''t need to be as loud and it''s not that important, more of an ambiance thing, so it should work.  I do want the DJ to play a song as we enter the reception though, and I''m going to talk with him to work that out.

This was a little different since my DJ was a family friend, but we booked him the entire reception.  He was there before the guests arrived and set up and played background mingling music.  During dinner he played more background music and during dancing he played an awesome upbeat set list and also took requests.  I think he was there for a total of 6 hours. 

Just for dancing - I''m a bit deaf and find it very hard to understand what people are saying if there''s a lot of background noise, so I hate ambient music. I''m always asking them to turn it down in restaurants.

My DJ is playing during the cocktail hour and dinner, but has been given explicit instructions that it should be barely audible because I hate trying to hear someone talk across the table when they are competing with loud music.  Then we''ll do the whole dancing with louder music thing.

Mine was there for the ceremony, cocktail hour and the whole reception.  I think that even if we hadn''t had him for the ceremony we still would''ve had him for the cocktail hour and reception.  I like background music.

we burned our own cd''s to use during the cocktail hour, and we couldn''t even hear those over all of the talking, so i don''t think any music was necessary then-
thank goodness we didn''t pay extra to have the Dj there for cocktail hour-

we had him start at 6 (with dinner) so that he did the announcements as we entered, and had soft dinner music in the background. it was 6-11, dancing started around 7:30

Our DJ is doing the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception.  We had asked a family friend to play the harp during the ceremony but I don''t think she''ll be able to and we wanted a backup.  The DJ agreed to do the ceremony at that point -- we had originally had him only for the cocktail hour and reception.  We''re also going to ask if he can keep the music down during dinner so conversations can easily take place.

We''re going to ask the restaurant to play their usual chilled out funky-restaurant acid jazz tunes through dinner, then the DJ will take over around 9pm, after dinner. I also hate it when music intrudes on conversation over dinner. Mind you, I once went to a wedding where the band started playing during dinner, adn they were so good that no one ATE dinner cause they were all up and dancing.

It was fun!

But given we''ve devoted about 70% of our budget to serving an awesome meal, it would be a crying shame if no one sat and enjoyed it.

We had live music (flute & keyboard) during the ceremony. DJ started when our reception started (annouced the wedding party, us, first dance, then music during dinner, then dancing (with cake cutting and father/daughter, mother/son dance thrown in there). Our reception started at 7:00 and they stayed till after midnight (even after DH and I left which I thought was cool of them).

We have our DJ for around 14hrs.  He will be at our ceremony venue in the morning for the music..and he will be at our reception to take care of all music (entrance, cake cutting, first dance, dinner music and then a night of dancing). 

Well it sounds like most everyone has the same thought as I do that music, in some form, from the time the guests arrive would be good.

We are having our ceremony and reception in the same place (ceremony outside, reception in the hall) so there won''t be time in between when the guests are driving from the ceremony to the reception. We are also planning on having live music during the ceremony (guitar, violin, and cello I think), so we need to decide if we want them to play all the way up until dinner, which would be great but expensive.

The way the hall is set up, during the cocktail hour the guests will have to walk all the way across the hall to get a drink. The doors from the outside are totally opposite the bar so I would like if when they come into the hall to get a drink there is a little music playing so it doesn''t feel so awkward. I think it would be fine if the live music still plays outside and we just have some low music playing in the hall. If the DJ doesn''t work out to come earlier, hopefully we can just set up an ipod with a nice playlist pre-picked.

This hall is really getting on my nerves, they are so strict with their rules. I''m still hoping they might be able to set up a small bar outside for the cocktail hour so people can just mingle outside while the inside gets the finishing touches...

Thanks everyone!!