Weddingbee Blog

We 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, that anxiety, teamed up with the fact that NOT ONE of my friends wanted to be the emcee, (come on people, normally you all are hams and show-offs!) pretty much cemented my decision to try and find an affordable DJ.

I had a few rules for said DJ, including the following:

• No wardrobe of shiny silver sequin vests, top hats or funky DJ wear.*
• The option to allow a couple of friends to “spin” a pre-determined short set during our wedding day dance-fest.
• A pleasant speaking voice - and no habit of interrupting or fast-talking.
• A music catalog that didn’t expire in the 80s or that contains mass amounts of country music or cheesy dance songs.
• Some form of lighting package for ambiance (this was Mr. Pom’s request).
• Under $1,000 for 5 hours.

You’d THINK this would be easy, right? Apparently, to-be-married peeps in the Sacramento/Bay Area area either love the chicken dance or like to spend loads of money on their music slingers. We interviewed a few folks, but nobody really grabbed us.
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I just realized I’ve never posted about our fabulous dj!   At first, we were planning on DIY-ing our wedding music with an Ipod, but I knew I would end up freaking out about the music on the wedding day if we did it ourselves.  I have this image in my head of me hauling a boombox around for backup. I was also scared there’d be a lot of this going on:

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When I thought only a few people would come to our destination wedding, I was fine with the idea of having an ipod wedding and dancing barefoot on the beach.  When the numbers started climbing towards 90 and beyond, we threw that idea out the window.

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When we started searching for a DJ, the choices were unlimited. We had tons of friends who got into the DJ’ing business from HS, and continued it into a growing business from the club scene to weddings and social events. Finding one that fit our budget and had the ear for some bad-ass beat that makes you want to rip the floor up and shake your bon bon like no tomorrow was a different story.

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So far, I’ve already blogged about our photobooth and our slideshow. Another special aspect of our wedding (and Mr. Hibiscus’ favorite) was our first dance.

Now, we worked really hard to come up with a routine after a couple of lessons from Arthur Murray. I think we did a good job considering we had no previous training. It wasn’t “Dancing with the stars” by any means, but we were very proud. We recommend taking dance lessons to help relax you for your first dance. Shockingly, my hubby wants to continue our lessons. He loved it and it was his favorite part of the wedding because he had put so much work into it.

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There was much debate whether or not we should have a band, DJ, or an iPod playing our music for the reception. My fiance’s mom liked the idea of having a band. The look of having a band at your reception is very classy and the sound is so much better live. The cons for having a band is that it’s very expensive and you really have a limited song list collection to choose from. I contacted most bands in the Philly/South NJ area and the minimum cost to book one was about $2000, which is way out of our price range. Read more…

My brother has agreed to be our MC and I am so happy he said yes! I had been putting off asking him because he is SO busy and I didn’t want to add more to his already full plate. But I was also worried that if he said no, we would have to ask someone else and I wanted to make sure that we would be giving them as much time as possible to prepare.

When I finally asked my brother, his reaction was not what I expected at first (he looked like I had asked him to give me his first born child or something!). So when he said that he had to think about it, I thought for sure it was going to be a “no” answer. Then morning he e-mailed me and said that he would be honored to be our MC!

This was a very important part of our reception since we are only having 1 speech, a toast to the couple, done by our MC. It HAD to be the right person. Someone who knows us both well, who would be funny, and who would not be too sentimental, too embarrassing or too long! (I know - tall order, right?) My oldest brother is the best story teller that we know, he has such a fantastic sense of humour and has been there through our whole relationship. So as soon as we started talking about who we wanted to do that job, we both knew that he would be our first choice.

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Mr. Kiwi was given a few jobs to do - music, officiant, and his suit. So far, I’ve made appointments to visit various officiants, and ripped out suit ideas. And as of yesterday, we kinda booked a music guy.

He is Mr. Kiwi’s (wait for it…) assistant coach. Who is still in college. And who doesn’t know a thing about actually MC’ing a wedding. Since I honestly don’t care about the music so much, I told Mr. Kiwi we can agree to it, but I get complete input on the playlist.

So, how did we manage to hire him? At their game last night, we were groaning about how hard this planning thing is, especially finding a DJ. Then Mr. Kiwi jokingly asked Brandon, “How about you do it?” Heh heh heh. Oh, how I laughed and laughed. Then Brandon said, “Why don’t you just use your ipod?” Which began a discussion of speakers, amps, mics, and those things. That led to Mr. Kiwi saying, “Dude, can you do it? We’ll use my ipod! I’ll give you a hundred bucks?” The smile on my face was replaced with my shocked open mouth.

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Alrighty folks… I need your opinions!

The DJ I’m considering offers a motorized light show for an additional $75 with his services. Have any of you been to a wedding where they had a lightshow along with the music? What did you think?

My initial thoughts: could look cool, maybe it will really liven up the dance floor? But on the other hand it could look tacky - maybe a little too prom-y or club-ish??

There’s an interesting Wall Street Journal article about how ipods are taking the place of traditional DJ’s at weddings because they cost less, enable couples to have more control over the music, and new ipod compatible equipment is making it easier than ever.

The rising popularity of ipods as djs has its detractors, namely, djs of course.

DJs say that despite the convenience and cost efficiency of iPods, the tiny music player is no match for a DJ’s musical timing and experience with song selection. “DJs can think on the fly and make adjustments,” says Mr. Ragusa. “The whole idea of a party is that it’s fluid. It’s dynamic. It’s an art.”

Some maintain that an ipod lends an unsophisticated ambience to a wedding.

Some wedding professionals think iPods are in poor taste. Claudia Hanlin, a partner at the Wedding Library, a wedding planning firm in New York, says couples should restrict iPods to rehearsal dinners or after-parties. iPod music at receptions may be off-putting. “The whole feeling is much less professional,” she says.

However real life brides that used ipods beg to differ.

Allison Emmerson, a 24-year-old graduate student at the University of Cincinnati, got married in July 2005 to Nate Emmerson, a 23-year-old paralegal. The couple’s friends tried to talk them out of going the iPod route because they felt it would ruin the reception.

It didn’t. Ms. Emmerson says guests hit the dance floor to the tunes that emanated from the iPod — which included David Bowie and the White Stripes. “Playing music is not brain surgery,” she says. “If you have good music and you have a fun atmosphere, you’re going to have people dancing.”