Wedding DJ''s, curse or blessing

[AtlantaC]

I''ve been to a ton of weddings...a ton. I can count on one hand the number of times I''ve thought, "Well, that DJ wasn''t terrible," while I can''t tell you how many times I''ve seen these awful DJ''s that think they''re Regis Philbin hosting their personal party. I find it very hard to believe that everyone of those couples getting married asked for that kind of DJ.

My fiancee is currently going through a search, but we''re beginning to think our combination of guests and location coupled with the russian roulette of expensive wedding DJ''s makes our own custom CD''s sound pretty good. We''d have someone in charge of the equipment to keep things smooth. The reception probably won''t be an out and out get down to the ground party. I prefer couples dancing to Jock Rock anyday.

Anybody have experience setting up their own music?

 

[babblingal]

We had a DJ for our wedding and he was fantastic, but I think much of it is due to the stipulations we put in the contract. We did not leave anything to his imagination regarding our expectations. We explained to our DJ how much interaction we expected him to have with the guests, how much time we expected him to be talking over the microphone and who would be directing events such as tossing of the bouquet and the special dance numbers with our parents,etc. To prevent the DJ from thinking we were nuts,we explained that this would protect him as well since he could say to a guest "I'm sorry, my contract does not allow for me to do that." He liked the idea of this since he said he got a lot of pressure from wedding guests regarding special requests, etc.

We specifically stated what we liked and did not like musically and added it to the contract. For example, we put in our contract "Absolutely no Chicken Dance, even if requested by a guest. Refer guest to member of the wedding party for discussion." So we gave him direction as to how to handle potential pitfalls too, this way he didn't have to worry about upsetting anyone. Fortunately, no one threw a big hissy fit about the ommission of the Chicken Dance.

We also felt that if we had some of this in the contract and the DJ signed it, he also knew that if he did not abide by the contract he would be in breech and we wouldn't have to pay him.

All professionals like to make money!

Also it helps to go watch a DJ in action yourself.

 

[Jennifer5973]

How about a live band? I had a band--and did a lot of homework and listening to find the right one but they were fantastic...People still comment about three things at my wedding (8 years later): 1. the food. 2. the band and 3. the top-shelf open bar.

I guess you see where their priorities stood...

Good luck! And remember to ENJOY your wedding!