Wedding Blog
In light of Miss Pineapple’s recent post on iPod wedding music, it’s time to share the tale of our biggest wedding disaster:
Because we had a budget wedding, and because I’m so picky about music that I couldn’t leave our playlist in anyone else’s hands, an iPod wedding sounded perfect. We had only around 50 guests, so we didn’t anticipate any trouble broadcasting to the dancefloor with a good set of speakers. (For a fancier sound-system set-up, check here.) I separated our pre-ceremony, cocktail hour, and dance playlists and set them to run in order so there would be no worry about choosing songs. We asked Mr T’s brother to serve as emcee so there’d be someone to provide introductions and transitions and move things along when necessary. And, in addition to loading the playlists on my iPod, I burned copies on CD and we loaded extra copies onto Mr T’s computer. Just in case!
(Mr T tries desperately to fix the iPod)
Well, the iPod worked brilliantly for the ceremony (pre-ceremony love songs, processional and recessional). The venue had a sound system, and we simply plugged in the iPod. But cut to the reception, when my iPod stopped working. And those multiple backups? Left behind at the hotel.
Thankfully, our multi-talented photographer and her assistant stepped in to play DJ off their computer and an iPhone! I’m terribly grateful that were still able to have a first dance and a parent dance, because they provided some lovely memories. But I mourned the loss of our special first dance song and all the other playlists I’d lovingly (obsessively!) put together in the days before the wedding.
(What are we dancing to? I have no idea!)
In the end, I’d still recommend an iPod wedding to anyone because of the cost and control advantages. I believe our situation was just one of those bad-luck events that happen sometimes. However, I definitely recommend making (and BRINGING) as many backups as possible!!!
(All photos by Punam Bean)
For those who are already married, what was your biggest wedding disaster?
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Share this post: An iPod Wedding Gone Horribly Wrong
Ack! Sorry to hear the music didn’t go well - it looks like you had a lovely time anyway. We’re bravely going forth with our iPod wedding plans (technically, it’ll be a laptop with a second laptop backup, plus CDs, plus iPod - can you tell I’m a bit worried???). It’s great to have a reminder to actually BRING the music backups though!
Thanks!
Completely unrelated…that second photo of you and Mr. Tulip dancing is breathtaking!!!
Hey there Tulip! I’m loving the details of your wedding so far, and I can’t wait to see more. Thank you for sharing all your tips and advice that someone budget minded like myself can relate to and appreciate!
My brother is the kind of guy who’d lose his head if it weren’t attached by his neck. Even though he’d gleefully introduced me to people where he works and told them I was getting married months out, he forgot to ask for the time off. And they inexplicably decided he needed to learn his lesson even though they could easily have done without him!!!! They said he’d be fired on the spot if he didn’t come to work that day. He was only given enough time off to arrive late and leave early from the ceremony (he made the reception since it was after work) which meant he couldn’t do a reading as planned, and even more infuriating, it didn’t occur to me until after the wedding that he is not in any portraits, and hardly any candids. Where he is pictured, he just looks stressed out.
I still find it kind of upsetting that his employers felt the need to make a point when it came to my once in a life event.
okay WOW those pictures are magical!!!!!!!!
and b) i’m so sorry about the music, but it looks like you still had an amazing time!
Aww, that sucks! 
I’ve heard lots of stories like yours, which is why the best bet is to use a computer (preferably a Mac) with iTunes - iPods tend to act up whereas computers don’t do so to such an extent (if ever, so long as your computer isn’t slow or buggy).
And of course having a 2nd computer with the same playlists and burned CDs is a great backup.
I am very happy you posted about this, because even though your music didn’t go as planned it looks like your marriage still happened 
We will definitely plan to bring back-up plans and I have just emailed the manager at the venue to schedule a test run.
I’m so in love with your wedding and your photographer! I hope mine from CA does half the awesome shots yours did!
My iPod is actually very reliable - but it is just a tiny computer, so it’s worth knowing how to reboot it! I have had to do that twice in three years now. For most models you press the top “button” and center of the wheel simultaneously, until the apple logo appears. It takes just a few seconds; I have never had to do it more than once. More complete instructions here:
Those photos are absolutely AMAZING! Even if you don’t know what song you were dancing to
I’m sorry about that happening, though!
Yikes! We’re doing a half-iPod wedding (with live music for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner but iPod for the remainder). We’re pretty nervous about it, but we just couldn’t justify the added expense of a DJ when we won’t technically have a dance floor. Besides, I’ve been to some weddings with horrific DJ’s… I think that scares me more than an iPod failing…
You are clearly a vastly more composed and mature bride than me. Because I absolutely could not have handled that. Kudos for being so calm about it, wow.
Your wedding looks gorgeous despite the iPod snafu!
Re: iPod DJs. I went to a wedding with an iPod DJ and was not impressed — it left for some really awkward pauses between songs. I feel like iPods just can’t do what a DJ or Live music can.
That would be a tie between my photographer and my DJ. The photographer was incredibly rude to everyone and had the nasty habit of simply grabbing whoever she wanted to photograph by the arm and dragging them to wherever she wanted them. Oh, and she ruined our first dance by slamming her camera into the side of my head. It got tangled in my veil and nearly ripped it off my head. I still have no idea how she managed to do that. Then our DJ totally ignored the playlists we gave him, broke the CD we gave him with some very special songs we wanted played, and when our cake cutting wasn’t happening fast enough for him, grabbed the knife, hacked big piece off, and shoved it in our faces. No, I didn’t get the wedding I’d dreamed of, but I did get the husband of my dreams.
Thank you for this post. Although we know that we’ll be taking our chances going the ipod route, it is most cost effective for us (our venue closes down at 11pm) and if we hadn’t planned on having backups, we most certainly will now.
I concur with the other posts, the pictures tell me that a great time was had by all.
Make sure your backups are right beside the sound system. When we had a snafu I had to send a friend’s child dashing upstairs to get the backups from my bag. Most importantly, don’t panic, just smile and laugh, all everyone will remember is how relaxed you looked!
Seriously, your photographer is amazing– that last photo of you and Mr. Tulip dancing is absolutely breathtaking.
We’re not having an iPod wedding but if we were, after your post I’d make sure the playlists were on my iPod, his iPod, and his Mom’s iPod…. followed by giving each Mom and my MOH a CD with the music. Sorry that happened to you. :’(
First, Mrs. Tulip I am so glad you didn’t let a little thing like that freak you out. There’s always going to be something that isn’t just right and it’s nice to see an example of a bride going with the flow and making the most of the situation. Bravo! (and wow were you gorgeous, by the way 
Second, for those of you thinking of doing an ipod wedding it can be great! Definitely use your laptop and not an ipod! Make sure to synch the volume on all the songs and adjust the pause between songs to make a smooth transition. We had one and it worked perfectly, thank goodness I was obsessed with my music and had listened to our playlist over and over and over. I burned back up cd’s and had my ipod as a back-up as well. Luckily didn’t need them.
Good luck!
Ah, what a pity
Thanks for the reminder to bring multiple back-ups, though!
Having once been a DJ (in a former life) with many weddings under my belt I can put forth the following simple rule -
An iPod is electronics. Electronic devices inherently know the most inopportune time to fail and then do so…
Back in the day, when I was DJing, it was still records (remember those). You always had at least 2 turntables and typically 1 or 2 tape decks. The equipment was more simple than today’s and redundancy was built in so that if one thing failed you could still survive (yes maybe the DJs deodorant might be dead by the evening’s end, but the music would still go on).
Fast forward to today and everything is on more complex devices like an iPod or a PC (with many, many, many more tunes than we could carry way back when). But nobody thinks to bring a second iPod or PC. They never fail -right? Wrong! Remember the rule above…
Music is such an integral part of a wedding reception that you should make sure that there is a backup plan. Ask the individual(s) providing the tunes what there failure plan is. Or hire a band, they rarely all get sick at the same time…
Y’all are so great — thanks for your comments! Yes, I’m repeatedly blown away by Punam Bean’s photos as well. I tend to remember my life most easily through photos, so it’s invaluable to have these lifelong reminders of our wedding day….
I still believe an iPod wedding can be a perfect low-cost option. Things can go wrong with any aspect of a wedding; sometimes it just happens! But it pays to be prepared in terms of a working sound system, backups, etc. And @maverika, thanks for mentioning 2 points I forgot: definitely it’s good to even-out the playback volume and smooth the transitions between songs.
As for everyone with disaster stories of your own, so sorry to hear it! But I loved your conclusion, @Sue Walsh!
That’s so terribly horrible that this happened to you! I’m so sorry to hear that!
But kudos to you for sharing this experience so other brides-to-be can be prepared for the possible debacles you showed here!
[...] for all your kind comments on our iPod disaster, everyone! As long as I mentioned my much-obsessed-over playlists, here they are. If they can help [...]
It looks like you and your husband had a beautiful day and will have a lifetime of music between you.
Thanks for sharing and for still recommending the i-pod wedding.
We had an ipod wedding too! My only problem was getting my brother to change playlists properly and not leave dead time. My disasters were a combination of it being almost 100 degrees for out outdoor ceremony and the fact that my mom cussed out or location manager so he was not present to help with anything. Our table set-up was completely wrong, but it all worked out in the end.
What a lovely sentiment, @Marlene, thank you!
And @Melissa, I agree with you on the “all works out in the end” front. There was certainly a bit of stress about the music, but once we just decided to “let it go,” the party could continue! (Thank heavens for our photographer playing pinch-hit DJ, because if all else failed I was going to make everyone SING so we could still have our dance, ha ha.)
Here’s a guide to a few things people often miss if they’re going to iPod a wedding. It’s possible to do well, but a few things prepared will make it successful even if the worst case scenario happens. It’s easy stuff to do - you just got to do it. Here’s a guide: http://www.siliconvalleydj.com/ipoddj.html
[...] originally planned on having an iPod wedding - but anxiety got the best of me after lots and lots (and lots) of people told me that the DJ is the one thing that most brides wish they had spent more on. Well, [...]
My wife ended up sucking my best man’s cock in the dressing room while -I- ended up playing the iPod DJ. On my wedding day!
Well here’s a DJ’s opinion. We actually offer an iPod Package. I blogged about it when we started offering it. http://colorblindproductions.blogspot.com/search/label/iPod. It’s a budget minded add on and I think if a person wants to go that route then they should and gives you piece of mind
IPOD weddings are risky and disastrous. I saw one bride had gone to an IPOD because of the horror stories of a bad DJ. Well, if you get LAZY in your interview with DJ’s - chances are you will get a bad one. If you do your homework (the same way you would for a venue, photographer, etc.) you can have exceptional entertainment from 10%-20% of your weddings budget. An IPOD can’t replace TALENT at ANY COST. I highly recommend seeking professional entertainment if you want your family & friends to enjoy, have fun, and most of all remember your wedding!
[...] decided to use the “free-j” and felt really good and confident about going that route. Mrs. Tulip had an iPod reception, but there were some problems when the iPod stopped working. Mrs. Corn [...]
[...] thanks to the wonder of the iPod. In our case, we “got what we paid for.” But I still believe iPod weddings can be ideal under the [...]
[...] two levels, so we held the cocktail hour upstairs before everyone moved down for dinner and (what would have been) dancing. It was fun to have an actual staircase for the grand [...]
This is an account of an ipod wedding from a friend of mine:
My wife and I took the weekend off to visit her parents up in Menohmen MN. (225 miles - six hour drive each way) Up towards the Minnesota/North Dakota border by Fargo. We stayed at the Casino Friday & Saturday evenings. Friday they had a concert by the band Styx. (Really - they are still alive ) Then on Saturday night they had a wedding in one of the smaller ballrooms.
Between 6pm and 1 am I walked past the ballroom 4 or 5 times to see what was going on. The B&G had a large dance floor (rented) with an ipod plugged into one (1) powered speaker with no lighting or Master of ceremony. The first time I passed by the room they were doing toasts to the B&G. There was no organization, no control over the microphone loudness and no order to who would speak and when.
The next time I walked by the B&G was on the dance floor having their first dance as husband and wife. No one was paying attention to what was going on, many of the guests were out in the hall or outside smoking. When the song ended it was silent. The B&G stood there for what seemed like forever but was probably 30 seconds then each walked away in a different direction. Then another song started “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz but no one went onto the dance floor. It looked like two of the bridesmaids were in charge of the music selections. I hung around for several songs but then went on my way.
The next two times I walked by to peek in - the “stereo typical” wedding music was playing but again, no one was dancing. Most of the young kids were out in the halls running around like crazy people. The adults sat there like lumps in the darked room. For “Beat it” by Micheal Jackson I did see a bridesmaid with two little kids get out and dance a little but quickly left the floor when the kids got bored.
It was a complete disaster and I felt bad for this couple who looked to be in their early 20’s with a room of all ages and yet the dance floor for the most part was unoccupied and there was no “excitement” level or direction for the group.
Unfortunately, too many people think it is just about music. A DJ does so much more. Whether you hire someone, DIY, or get a friend to do it (with an iPod or not), at least know what you should expect that person to do. Here are two videos explaining some of that:
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Mrs. Tulip, DC
Age and Occupation: 36, Retired
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Counsel/DOO for Small Gov't Contractor
Engagement Date: August 8, 2007
Wedding Date: March, 2008
Venue: Still Looking!
About Me: In all my dreams of the man I'd someday marry, I never pictured anyone as perfect for me as Mr. Tulip. So now we just have to make it through the craziness of the wedding and the moving in together! I love crafts, sewing, jewelry making, and photography, so am looking forward to this chance for DIY fun. When not wedding planning, I'm playing with our dog and 4 cats, Ebay shopping, or watching too much TV (often simultaneously!).
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