Weddingbee Blog

I consider myself to be a pretty well-seasoned wedding attender. I would say that I have been to about 10 or 11 in my lifetime. Of these weddings I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of music at a wedding. I have attended weddings where the DJ was so awful at picking music that no one touched the dance floor after the bridal party dances, and instead everyone opted to sit at their tables and drink themselves into a stupor (which is really sad considering that even the drunk guests were staying away from the floor). There have also been receptions where the DJ totally brought the house down. There were people busting moves that I didn’t even know existed.

This isn’t me at a wedding, but an example of how I like to get down to a good DJ. (personal photo)

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Once the photographer was out of the way, the next decision at bat was music. We actually knew early on that our music would be provided by a DJ. Sure, some people say that you can’t have a classy wedding without a live band, but we’re not all that classy and if we have a song in mind, we want to hear that one, not a cover. With the boards’ suggestions in hand, I sent out a bunch of emails being very upfront about our budget and music tastes. It’s not like we are only into house music or only like obscure indie bands that no one has heard of, in fact, quite the opposite. I am a sucker for pop music that gets folks on the dance floor and the Baconator is all about hair bands from the ’80s, so together, we are pretty easy customers.

The Baconator’s favorite band of all time: Van Halen

Video via YouTube

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with him!

Last week I received an email from our DJ informing us that he’ll be spinning at a local lounge on the weekend and asked us to swing by if we had a chance.

Mr. French Toast was on his boys getaway weekend and I figured …well… since the boys are away, the girls will come out and play. So a few girlfriends and I went out for a night on the town for some dancing.

We initially found DJ Quantum through Yelp. Mr. French Toast and I took a leap of faith by booking him because I exhausted my referral list from other couples and couldn’t find a DJ who met our criteria. We went with DJ Quantum is because he was quick to respond, personable, attentive and I liked the music tracks that he shared on his website. When we met in person, it was like we were old friends and hit it off instantly. He also sent me a workout mix he created, which was really the icing on the cake for us.
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Yesterday, Hey Mister DJ Lee Dyson shared tips with Weddingbee on fostering an environment at your wedding that makes your guests want to dance all night long!  Read the first post here, and check out DJ Lee’s additional tips below!

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Additional tips for a successful dance floor

If the cocktail hour is located in a separate area from the reception/dinner area and is accessible for the entire night, make sure to have the venue move a 2^nd satellite bar into the actual reception area so you don’t keep losing guests out of the dinner area. Even the best DJ can’t compete with open bar in a different room!

If this isn’t possible, then spend the money to have the DJ run an extra speaker to the separate cocktail area so people are still musically connected to the environment and can hear announcements when it’s time to pull them all back in for toasts, the first dance, etc.

The bride and groom can really set the tone for the evening!
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Hi hive! Mrs. Penguin here! I’ve heard from many brides how delighted they’ve been to have a roomful of dancing guests, and how sad others have been that no one took the dance floor. I’ve heard many DJs say that a lot goes into fostering a comfortable environment for guests to dance—it doesn’t always just depend on the crowd itself. So, we’ve asked Hey Mister DJ Lee Dyson out of LA to give us some tips on how he makes sure dance floors are always packed at events he spins!

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One of the most overlooked areas in the floor plan of an event is how to setup the dance floor so it is an inviting and comfortable place to be. Size, location in relation to the room, and proper lighting all can dramatically affect how busy the dance floor becomes after dinner. Every event has some (if not many) guests that are uncomfortable being watched or dancing in public, so it’s important to create an environment that helps ease this anxiety and loosen people up.

The aesthetics of the room can have a large impact on the DJ’s ability to do their job.

If a room isn’t comfortable, then sometimes it doesn’t matter how perfect the DJ is at selecting songs. People can be far less likely to dance, as room layout, room temperature, and lighting levels can all affect the emotional and physical comfort level of your guests.
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When I was a little girl, I had a very specific idea of what I wanted my wedding to be like. I’m going to leave you in suspense for a bit because it is priceless. As I got older, I never thought I could afford a nice wedding. I’m a little unsure of myself whenever money and/or numbers are involved. Because of my fear, I didn’t have big adult ideas (aside from the dress) that I thought about about, except for the MUSIC. Oh man, I love music. Our DJ was our first wedding decision. In truth, hiring Brendan Lafferty of southcoastdj.com was not a decision. He was the DJ at our friend’s wedding and kept everyone on the dance floor all. night. long. He’s magic! Even Brendan admits that Trevor and Jen’s wedding was the best. Jen’s sister even hired him a year later to do her wedding. (Brendan is not paying me for my oh-so-important recommendation.)

So my thoughts about music? Well, I certainly have wanted to hear “Stand By Me” at our wedding for years. YEARS I tell ya! Don’t get me started on “The Cha Cha Slide.” I don’t want to get fired up this early in the morning. Needless to say, there will be no White People dances at the wedding. Sorry folks, you’re going to have to come up with your own dance moves without some idiot telling you what to do. The bar is to the right of the entrance, in case you are wondering!

So with the most important decision made, the music maker, where do I go from here? I started the venue hunt shortly after hiring the DJ and started to get all warm and fuzzy about a peacock theme. It was January 2009, so this theme was pretty cutting edge at the time. Are you all sick of those damn feathers by now? No? Well I am (for me anyway)! So without further ado, here is the inspiration board—the first of many…
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I am in need of a DJ, and according to my friend (and enemy) Martha Stewart, this is something that should have been done a month ago. But, Martha, to be fair, it’s not like I haven’t been TRYING to book a DJ! I’ve done a lot of Internet research to find a reputable DJ that won’t break the bank, and the last time I was in Dallas, Mama Hippo and I met with two DJs, both of whom were recommended to me by other vendors. Let’s just say the appointments were less than successful. Actually, they were a huge fail.

So, I’m going to sound like the most superficial person ever, HOWEVER, the first DJ showed up looking completely disheveled. He was sweating and couldn’t seem to stop sweating. O.k., so it may have been June in Texas, but we were meeting indoors, with central air conditioning…I think at some point he should have stopped sweating, no?! I think he would have been completely fine at the job of playing music and making announcements, but the sweating…not o.k.

The second DJ rubbed me the wrong way immediately. He had his canned “this is how a wedding works” PowerPoint presentation and mentioned something about giving out the centerpieces during the reception…What??! Like a raffle??!? Ummm…no. He was over-the-top cheesy, although he kept telling us how he hated cheesy DJs. Ummmm…Glass houses? Stones?

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Originally when we started thinking about our wedding I imagined we would have a DJ. We weren’t really interested in a band (especially since we can’t afford one!) and I was convinced using an iPod or a laptop was a recipe for disaster. However, Mr. Knitting has always wanted to use a laptop because he likes the idea of us having complete control over the music and he also finds DJs irritating.

What Mr. Knitting thinks all DJs are like (P.S. if you haven’t seen the video of this guy yet click on the source link to watch. It’s pretty hilarious):

Source

After a few months of him badgering me (read: mentioning it once or twice) about using a laptop, I have finally given in. Here’s (pretty much) how that conversation went:
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I actively dislike most wedding DJs, their lights, and their radio voices, so it was easy to nix that from the plans. Therefore, that meant we had to devote time to creating playlists for the ceremony, ambient dinner hour, and 3-4 hours of laptop dancing. DIY DJ, if you will.

We agree on a lot, musically, so some of it was painless. The standard Bridal Chorus was agreed upon quickly, and the recessional, bridesmaid processional, and first-dance choices were easy. So was much of the ambient music. But you should have seen the spreadsheet once comments flew back and forth on the party-party song choices.

Mr. Taco: “If we want to have songs that I refuse to ‘dance’ to, yes.”

(Re: the allegedly un-danceable but surefire crowd-pleaser  Livin’ on a Prayer by Bon Jovi)

Ms. Taco: “I don’t know if you can dance-dance to that.”

(Re:  Genius of Love by Tom Tom Club. This statement was met by scoffs and complaints about the damn kids these days. I really like this song, in other settings, in my defense)
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Since a few of our major vendors are already booked, I thought I’d post something about the selection process. Anybody else remember this song?

“On & on, and on and on…”

I thought (for about 5 minutes) about having an iPod reception (especially since I was initially in “garden wedding” mode), but I gave up on that idea quickly. There are just too many variables, and asking a friend to DJ our wedding instead of being an actual guest seemed kind of sad, and we didn’t have anyone we thought would volunteer.
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After four consultations with DJs throughout RI, we finally found THE ONE! I was so excited because by the time we went on our drive to the fourth consultation, I was starting to think we would never find the perfect DJ, but we did.

We met with Larry from Engagements D.J. Entertainment, out of East Greenwich, RI. He was absolutely perfect for us. We were looking for someone who is low key, has experience, will work with us on the playlist, has a great personality and who has decent prices. He has the whole package. He will even play the Cha Cha Slide, which I never thought would be an issue, until a consultation with another DJ.

We had met with four DJs total—the most vendors we had met with for anything. I know four isn’t too many (I think 3-4 is a good number), but we originally thought we would need to find more people to look at before making a decision, since the first 3 consultations didn’t work out so well.
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I needed a focus for all of my wedding anxiety, so I picked the DJ. I was afraid that she wouldn’t show up on the day of and I wouldn’t know until it was too late, and we’d have no music. I acknowledged that this was completely irrational, but I clung to my fear. We booked the DJ with The Pros, a big corporation that wouldn’t let us contact our DJ in advance (the one DJ who specializes in the Bhangra music we wanted at the wedding), but every contract we had said that she was “confirmed”, so I made our final payment over the weekend.

Last night, our DOC called me and told me she got a phone call from someone at The Pros, saying that our DJ is unavailable and I have to choose between one of the two remaining DJs left unbooked Los Angeles for our fast approaching wedding date—let’s call them BoyBand and PipSqueak, neither of whom have any background in Bhangra music. With our wedding day coming so soon, I don’t have time to get the music and make the playlist for them!

Why they called our DAY OF COORDINATOR (I told them to add her as a contact for the day of only, but that didn’t stop them from calling her instead of the person who just paid them, go figure), I couldn’t tell you, but since The Pros is based on the East Coast, there was no one to take my call at that hour.
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I booked our DJ today! I’m so excited because I was not only able to get the DJ I wanted, but I also negotiated $200 off his fee! Who thought that was possible? Certainly not me. I don’t consider myself a very good haggler/bargainer. Mostly, I think I’m usually too nervous to try and bargain, but in this craptastic economy, everything’s fair game in my mind. So I figured, you never know unless you try, right? What’s the worst that can happen? And it worked!

(The story with our DJ is that he used to DJ for my favorite radio station growing up, Mix 106.5. So when I saw him DJ at a wedding two years ago, I immediately remembered his name from the radio and we struck up a conversation. He ended up being a great DJ and got everyone on the dance floor. He also showed good judgment when my inebriated self asked him to play the Pussycat Dolls “Buttons” and he told me that was inappropriate wedding music. Normally, I’d be miffed, but this guy had such tact that I found myself agreeing with him. Anyway, I digress.)

So how did I manage to score $200 off his fee?
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Hi everyone… umm, remember me? I know, I know, it has been far too long since I’ve shown my face around here. I’ve been seriously dragging my feet finishing up ye olde recaps. But, in case your memory has completely been wiped of my existence - I’ll give you the down and dirty highlights.

I had some rockin’ hair and makeup. My husband got himself into some sticky situations before the wedding. We had so much fun taking pictures around Oak Park. I (umm, I mean, we) had a fabulous, fabulous cake.

OK, so now that you’re caught up and can kind of remember my bee existence, let’s dive back into the recaps!

Figuring out what DJ to hire was something that, quite honestly, I just didn’t want to deal with. I had no clue how to choose a DJ or what to look for.

And then, we thought about our friends’ wedding in St. Louis about a year before ours. Everyone danced. The DJ did his thing, wasn’t cheesy, played great music. We heard through our friends that he was also interested in breaking into the Chicago market. That sealed the deal.
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The very first wedding-related project that made Mr. Guinea Pig’s eyes light up was music (the second being our website design). Mr. Guinea Pig loves music. He refuses to have single songs in his iTunes library, only complete albums - he says artists create albums so that they are listened to in their entirety, not piecemeal. This means he has a LOT of music on his computer, and he’s always exploring new bands/artists. Once, I thought I had finally heard of a band before he had, so I excitedly played a song I liked for him - he listened to about 30 seconds of it and said “Oh yeah, I forgot about these guys - did you know they’re comprised of members from {this other band} and they actually released this song a year ago?” … le sigh. Someday… someday, I will introduce a new band to him! It’s now one of my life goals.

So! Why am I telling you this seemingly random bit of information? Well, once we started talking about reception music and lamenting the fact that bands are so freaking expensive, Mr. Guinea Pig decided we would have an iPod reception, with all music chosen and organized by him (along with my input, of course). We operated under this assumption for about 5 months of our engagement and were slowly adding songs to the ’must have’ list - until in June, we went to a friend’s wedding. At the reception, there was a guy operating an iPod. It was unclear whether he was actually a DJ or just a friend of a friend, but this guy was. not. good.
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