DJing Yourself. Sort of.

Mrs. Grasshopper, New York Age and Occupation in 06: 28, Interactive Communications Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Product Manager Engagement Date: October 8, 2005 Wedding Date: September, 2006 Venue: The Foundry About Me: I like puppies, technology, baked goods and naps. Our engagement went down in Paris on the Alexander III bridge where my fiance nearly dropped the ring into the Seine.

May 29th, 2006 @ 5:07 pm by Mrs. Grasshopper

In this week’s roundup, Mrs. Bee blogged about an ipod djing article that I loved. I’ve always had a hard time with DJs I have heard at weddings over the years. In my opinion there is a good chance they may bring an element of cheesiness with songs like “It’s raining men” and the chicken dance, no matter how many “do not play instructions” you give the DJ (not to say there are not great DJs to be found, there are just a lot of bad ones too).

On the other hand, if you are a bride on a budget, you know that hiring a band can be a pricey option and not one that everyone will enjoy. There is the chance it may sound like American Idol, but worse. Nailing Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” is probably not that easy, right?

We fall into the category above - we wanted to keep the wedding within a reasonable budget, and the band we thought we might like was a bit out of our reach, but we also didn’t want to end up with a DJ we just met with his or her own ideas for what might work. One of the first decisions we made in the planning process was to go our own way, and make our own wedding play lists on our laptops and ipods and ask an acquaintance to man the music for the night. He will emcee and make calls as to what songs will work, but we know him well and know he has similar taste in music as us, so we are not worried.

When our friends found out we asked one person to handle the music for the night, they were bummed they were not asked to guest DJ and alternate throughout the night with other guests. I have a feeling this will still happen at some level, which is fine by us as long as certain songs get played. Overall, I am happy with this plan, it’s fun, personal and easily within our budget even with renting DJ equipment.

While we have no idea how successful (or not) this might be, if you are looking for a way to save a giant chunk of cash and are somewhat relaxed enough to let the guy or girl you know who loves making mix CDs learn how to use a mixer the day of your wedding, think about renting a few speakers, speaker stands, a mixer, a deck and a microphone and you should be all set.