Weddingbee Blog

…dancing, that is. I LOVE to dance. I could dance all night long. It doesn’t take much to get me out on the dance floor. Same goes for Mr. Wallaby. To an outsider, we probably look pretty ridiculous. Check out this AWESOME picture of him gettin’ down at a friend’s wedding last February:

Sorry, babe, that is just way too funny! Personal photo.

And here’s another gem, this one from our engagement party:

Bridesmaid C (left), me, and Mr. W dancing like fools at our engagement party. Personal photo.

Since we didn’t want to limit ourselves to one genre of music by hiring a band (and c’mon, what band does covers of B. Spears and Gangnam Style?), we decided to hire a DJ to keep the music flowing the night of our wedding. We also hired some students from a local university to play in a string quartet for the ceremony—more on that later!

We didn’t do too much research before we signed the contract with our DJ. We met one very nice DJ at the bridal expo in January, and we got pricing information from his company. He has very high reviews, but we also wanted to get some recommendations from our friends. Three of my coworkers all hired DJ Unlimited to emcee their weddings, and they raved about how professional and crowd-pleasing the DJs were. I asked Mr. W to meet with DJ Unlimited in person, to make sure that we wouldn’t end up with a DJ with “radio voice.” Know what I’m talking about? I think some DJs sound like car salesman commercials, or late-night over-caffeinated radio DJs who like to hear the sound of their own voice. I think a DJ for a wedding should be effective at organizing people and facilitating the flow of events, but he/she should be subtle enough that the guests don’t remember the sound of his/her voice at the end of the night.

It turned out that Mr. W got along famously with all of the guys at DJ Unlimited, and he was keen to sign a contract with them. Then at the next family dinner, we figured out that Mr. W’s brother hired the same exact DJ for his wedding seven years ago! Since the DJ was a hit back then, we are sure he can still get the crowds groovin’ now. So we called him the next business day and signed the contract on the spot—but not before we did a little negotiating. The other DJ from the bridal expo had offered us a lower rate, so we used that as bargaining power. I strongly recommend tapping the best source of reviews—your friends and family—for vendor recommendations, and before you book a vendor, always see if you can bargain or come up with a custom package.

Once the DJ was hired, we began compiling a list of our favorite songs—”Best Wedding Playlist Ever.xls” (no joke. We’ve gotten a little carried away with the playlist)—and taking song requests from our families. I’m also going to print out a bunch of these cute DJ request cards:

Free printable DJ request cards from Wedding Chicks.

Who else loves to dance—or has a significant other as goofy as mine? Are you hiring a DJ to oversee the music at your wedding?