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For the first time since we got engaged, I recently started to freak out a little bit about our reception music. We’ll be joining the masses rockin’ an iPod/laptop reception, and I have very little grasp on the logistics.
Image via iWorld-CLUB
Panic! Adorable panic!
Sure, I’ve got a basic outline of the music we’d like to play for the various parts of the reception, and we’ve got plenty of time to finalize it. I’ve talked to the woman who owns Downtown 202 about some of the logistics of hooking up a laptop. (She said to come in a few weeks in advance to make sure everything will hook up properly, or just burn CDs of all the music.)
What I wasn’t sure about, though, is how the actual reception is gonna go down. Obvs, we would like to have music for the anniversary dance, the cake cutting, and the bouquet and garter tosses, as well as plenty of time to cut a rug. This is where it got complicated in my brain.
These questions were bouncing around in my head, unsolved for a couple of days, in which I was almost frustrated enough to blow the whole thing off and just hire a DJ. I had worked the iPod at Bridesmaid A’s wedding, but since her wedding was mid-afternoon with no meal and no toasts and not many announcements, I don’t remember how she accounted for these little things (and neither does she). I mainly just recall hitting play on her cocktail-hour playlist, and then switching it over to the dance playlist when she and her new hubby walked in.
Luckily, Mr. H came up with an answer to my many questions…and I promise you’ll think it’s crazy. You’ll want to stay tuned for this.
If you had an iPod reception, how did you deal with the little “events”?
We could not figure this out either. We had originally planned to do an ipod as our DJ as well. We ended up finding a professional DJ that happens to be in the same fraternity as my fiance and he cut us a really good deal. I would maybe try to network and use any connections, or pick the most music savvy bridesmaid to man the ipod!
We are going to have separate playlists- One for the “Important” songs like first dance, cake cutting, Father/Daughter/Mother/Son, Garter/Bouquet toss.
Then we’ll have another playlist for “Dinner” music, and one for “After Dinner” music- dinner music is just a little less upbeat. You want to save your upbeat songs for dancing.
As for hooking everything up, we are fortunate enough that one of the groomsmen is in a band, and is offering to let us borrow their sound equipment, along with setting it up for us.
This will include the microphone, so our designated DJ friend will be able to make announcements during the night.
My MOH asked someone to man the ipod and one of the groomsmen made all the important announcements. It seemed to work really well for them. I can’t wait to see what Mr. H came up with though!
This is perfect timing…we are planning on an iPod reception, and were just discussing yesterday what to do about an emcee. I think it’s definitely necessary to have someone that can get the crowd’s attention, or they’re not going to know what’s going on!
Our wedding isn’t until next year, but we bought an ipad app called Wedding DJ, and split everything up into separate playlists. FI is taking care of the music and then getting my opinion on what he adds, so I don’t think we’ll have a problem with repeats. Our music for dinner should be pretty different then the dancing music. My Man of Honor will be the emcee for most of the few things we’ll need, like the cake cutting, and my dad will do the introductions of the wedding party.
Hopefully it’ll go well. I’ve never actually attended a wedding where anyone’s done this. But I hate most wedding dj’s and it’s just not in the budget.
Ok I can’t wait to see your next post! That is exactly the same kinds of things that made us hire a DJ. 
Our wedding was a little over 2 weeks ago and we used a laptop for all of our music. The music and dancing were a big hit– people were dancing well past the bar closing (11:45), until 1AM!!! I’d be happy to share some tips with you, because I was really happy with how things turned out for us.
-Emcee: I would definitely recommend designating someone to introduce the bridal party and any other important ‘events’ during the reception. We asked the Groom’s cousin to do this, and he was great. He introduced the bridal party, toasts, cake cutting, and first dance. We did not do parent dances or bouquet/ garter, so that made it a little easier for him. Ask an outgoing friend or relative- someone you think will get into it and have fun!
-Playlists: We didn’t have cocktail music because we had a live musician, but we had separate playlists for dinner music and dancing music. Our first dance was the first song listed at the beginning of the ‘dance’ music playlist. The rest of the music pretty much played in order.
-Timing: Definitely make the playlist(s) longer than you think you’ll need! I thought our dancing would pretty much end around 12, but it’s a good thing I made the playlist longer because we ended up needing an extra hour!
-Preparation: It took a lot of time building our playlist, but it was a lot of fun too! You can pick all of your favorite songs 
I made sure to mix in oldies favorites with new/ pop music, and old school favorites. I played the ‘clean’ version of every song (you can search specifically for this in iTunes). I only had about 2-3 slow songs…. I figured once people get dancing, they want upbeat music (which worked out great for us).
**MAKE SURE you visit the venue ahead of time to do a ‘test run’– hook everything up and make sure it works (our venue had an audio-visual guy who helped with this). On the day of the wedding, designate this to your Groom or Best Man. If your venue doesn’t offer the equipment, it shouldn’t be hard to find a place to rent from. Just google search ‘audio visual equipment rental.’ We used a mixer, wireless microphone, and 2 big speakers.. I can get you more detailed info if you’re interested.
Phew…. sorry so long, but I just wanted to share my experience because I was also worried about it, but it turned out so well! I would definitely recommend going this route. I’d be happy to share my playlists or additional info, too
We are having an iPod recession and I have the same concerns, so I can’t for part 2 of this post!!
We were going to do this but when it came down to actually selecting music and figuring out all the logistics I freaked out and got really overwhelmed.
We have a DJ now since someone at work got me a deal with her ex-husband’s DJ company. I’m interested to see how you guys figured it out!
I don’t have experience with this, but I have thought about doing this, so I’m very interested to see what you have come up with.
SO’s brother-in-law has the perfect personality for an MC, so we might ask him to be a MC of sorts.
Can’t wait to see how you work this out. We are having the same logistical questions, and I can’t for the life of me figure out how it will all work. Not to mention the stress of picking it all the right music, buying it, organizing it, etc. I’m learning that an iPod reception might be the cheaper way to go, but you seriously pay for it with your time!
@FutureMrsB: I didn’t know there was an app for that! I’ll have to look it up.
@MCC919: Thanks for commenting. It’s so good to hear from those who have pulled this off! We also don’t have too many slow songs, but I didn’t think to extend the playlist just in case.
@mariewest: It’s definitely labor-intensive to do your own music, but I like having full control over the music and our engagement was long enough that I didn’t feel rushed for time while working on it.
@Ms. Ferris Wheel: Don’t worry, once you have all the music you think you want in your playlist(s), it’s pretty quick to buy it on iTunes, then you can just play it and dance around, and if you hear a transition you don’t like, you just move a song around. Just one step at a time.
we have 4 after dinner playlists:
(1) first dance and parent dances
(2) ~30 minutes of open dancing music, while this last song is playing the DOC will prepare all the items for the cake cutting/bouquet/garter toss
(3) and then we lump all of the cake cutting, bouquet, garter toss together in one playlist. we’re not doing specific songs for each, we’re just letting this run until we’re done with these events
(4) open dancing for the rest of the night
our DOC will keep an eye on the timeline all night and help get people’s attention and my sister will have a list of announcements to make at the appropriate time
I’m interested to see what you came up with though!!
So looking forward to your next post! We were going the iPod route until I got insanely frustrated. 
Hire a microphone to connect to your sound system like this - http://youtu.be/bVdHkcp7kDs - for your designated deliverer to make annoucements.
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Mrs. Hyena, College Station, TX Age and Occupation: 23, Marketing Specialist Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Grad Student Engagement Date: January 8, 2010 Wedding Date: May 2011 Venue: Downtown 202 About Me: I'm a Texas girl who met my future hubby in high school, then headed up to Oklahoma for a college education (BOOMER SOONER!) before moving back to the Lone Star State to be with him. I love reading and recycling, Photoshop and reality TV, making lame jokes and then laughing at them, quoting movies, and Mr. Hyena most of all. I'm perpetually early and I like to get things accomplished. When my cat meows at me, I meow back. We're planning a laid-back, unintentionally DIY wedding with a cocktail-party vibe, and can't wait to celebrate our nuptials with our nearest and dearest!
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