What do DJs do for weddings?

[Narukami]

I don't think this question is asked enough as I can't find any good posts online on what Wedding DJs actually do. Here's the story: Since I've last recieved my Pio 350 pack (thanks to the advice from the members here), I got to do some small house parties. Usually once a fortnight or once a month.

Doing my very first gig taught me a few things:

1) ALWAYS have radio music ready. I guess I finally understood what pro DJs meant by "the people want something to sing to,"

2) Say no to girls who ask you to take care of their handbags.

3) Make sure no one touches your shit.

4) Always come to the place early.

5) There will always, ALWAYS, be a fight

Now, house parties are one thing. If I fuck up, no one really cares that much as they're too busy being drunk and having sex. But one day, I got an email from someone asking me to DJ their wedding. I gave them an honest "No". I've never really thought about DJing for weddings. I don't attend a lot of weddings and I don't know how to DJ for weddings. Thing is, if I fuck up during a wedding, I'll probably fuck up real bad. I just don't know what to do during weddings. So I just want to know a couple things about DJing for weddings.

1) What kind of music should I play. They'll usually be tons of different aged people and I don't know what mind of music to play. :c

2) How big should my PA speakers be? Or how many speakers would I need?

3) How long do the gigs go for?

4 Do I need to bring tons of special gear like lights and stuff?

I'd appreciate it if someone could answer these questions or if they could even give me more advice too! Thanks :3

[GREMM1S]

Its a pretty special occasion man, unless it is a close friend/family i would pass on it if you dont think you are ready.

Majority of the party will be background music, nice upbeat house, oldies, jazz anything.

The hard part is the dancefloor becauese you dont have just 90 or rock oldies, you could not proper old stuff for grandparents etc

I did one and tbh wish i didnt, no major fuck ups but pretty stressful, luckily was a very young crowd.

[GREMM1S]

As for for your questions 6 or so hours, the pa will depend on venue size, you will need coverage for not just the dancefloor but also near tables for speeches. No subs and lights would a couple nice effects, no strobes or lasers just colorful room fill.

[SolDios]

Alright I've done few of these, so il drop my advice:

Doing my very first gig taught me a few things:

1) ALWAYS have radio music ready. I guess I finally understood what pro DJs meant by "the people want something to sing to,"

Yes, I always tend to drop something they know every 3 songs just to keep them interested, with something less well known after that, then a banga that they do or don't know.

2) Say no to girls who ask you to take care of their handbags.

Yes, also to drinks, you don't want to be responsible for peoples shit if it get's lost.

3) Make sure no one touches your shit.

Yup, also try to keep them at a bit of a distance, some douse WILL come up and dangle a drink over your shit.

4) Always come to the place early.

For me it's they rock up an hour late, so not sure here.

5) There will always, ALWAYS, be a fight

Nope, arguments, but never always a fight. In the 32 gig's I've done I have seen 4.

____________________________________________________________________

1) What kind of music should I play. They'll usually be tons of different aged people and I don't know what mind of music to play. :c

How old are they? this is a key factor.

2) How big should my PA speakers be? Or how many speakers would I need?

It depends on the size of the venue

3) How long do the gigs go for?

If your there for dinner and such, usually bout 5 till 12

4. Do I need to bring tons of special gear like lights and stuff?

Lights and things are highly recommended, but not too much, keep it tasteful!

[Narukami]

Thanks for the tips. but for music, well say the couple are 20-30 years old and most of the guest would be around 20-50 years old. So I'm not sure if I should like just buy a whole bunch of 80s/90s compilation albums

[AlexJ]

better to play slightly older music then slightly newer, as generally the oldies can relate to it as its from their era and the young ones have heard it growing up because often their oldies have played/sung it continuously.

the best thing is always to have a range.

No use rocking up with 80's/90's music because you know its a wedding for 30 yr olds when the bride comes up to you and says we want to dance to 'sexy and I know it'. dont want to stand there with a dumb look on your face and tell her i didnt pack it coz i ASSUMED you would want old stuff. I did my cousins wedding not long ago and i got requests of everything from the beatles to george michael to lmfao. a couple i didnt have but i just jumped straight onto itunes to find them (this was easiest for me at the time).

The main thing is you dont want to say no. its their day, not yours so just play whatever they want.

Always handy to have a wireless mic setup available for mc. even if not explicitly requested. i found my 4 speakers did the job. 2 qualities at the front on stands for main sound and 2 rigged about halfway down the room to spread the volume alittle, but only had these turned down low. Spread them as far as you can to get an even sound. remember the guy in the back may have been the first boyfriend of the bride, he might like to listen to her happy day just as much as her father does.

[SourceRaver]

Have a look on this forum for a wedding thread. Can't lay my hands on it now but it has heaps of tips and advice. I'll see if I can find it later for you.

[GREMM1S]

You will honestly need a whole range of music, new commercial, older commercial, all the pub rock stuff, older rock and even jazz swing sorta stuff.

[Funky_Steve]

If you've never done a wedding before and only been to a few as a guest, my advice would be to ring around a few mobile DJ companies, explain your situation and ask if you can tag along to a gig or two. You'll learn more at these one or two weddings then you could ever learn reading 20 forums on djing. And if you show the right attitude, they might get you a few more gigs or keep you in mind if they need help.

[SourceRaver]

Here tis...

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4852

Enjoy!

[Lurk6r]

1) What kind of music should I play. They'll usually be tons of different aged people and I don't know what mind of music to play. :c

2) How big should my PA speakers be? Or how many speakers would I need?

3) How long do the gigs go for?

4 Do I need to bring tons of special gear like lights and stuff?

1) Even tough most wedding follow a general format, each wedding will be different depending on what the bride and the groom want and who they invite. I had a young couple a while ago, wanted mostly rnb and 90's music, the bridal party was their friends, but everybody else was in their late 50's. I ended up playing chill rnb and a couple swing tracks for the oldies, but generally it was pretty quiet. When I meet with clients for bridals, I always explain to them that they have final say in everything, but they should consider the age/taste of their guests and give me some leeway so I can keep everybody happy and ensure a successful event. I then give them a "10 songs that must be played list" and a Do Not play list. This is on top of the general song list or bridal walkon/waltz/garter/boquet etc.

Basically, you need to be prepared for ANYTHING, worse case scenario, people haven't seen each other in a long time and just wish to talk. If the bride is happy with that, just keep a pleasant atmosphere.

2) I bring my standard two 12 tops and 15 sub. But you could get away with good tops. It most likely won't be as loud as a house party, most of the night you will be playing background music while their eating. Occasionally, you will get the father of the bride/groom at the front, near your speakers and again, most likely he will be old and not like loud music. If your meeting with them early enough, discuss the possibility of seating the older guests away from the speakers if possible. On the other hand, I did a lebanese wedding with some traditional music that was extremely bass heavy. More imporatantly, make sure your speakers look clean. Duct tape, or get black velcro cable ties to keep the cables out of sight. Maybe consider investing or sewing if your any good, some lycra speaker stand skirts like these http://www.scrim-king.com/wp-content/up ... uble-2.jpg. I think white works better for weddings and black for everything else. If you go with white, you can get a led par can and uplight it.

Short version, clean tidy gear is the key.

3) Generally 4-5 hours, I had a 7 hour one but lets not go there. A quick run down would be, guests come in, bridal party comes in, appertizer, main, speeches, cake, bridal waltz, dancing starts, desert gets served (everything goes downhill from here), people eat desert and gets extremely hard to get them back up again, may or may not do farewell circle. Again, if your meet early, suggest that they should try to group general dancing together in 1 big chunk instead of having 15 min sets spread out throughout the night.

4) Special gear. Okay. On one hand, i used to work for a big mobile dj company that would charge $500 and send you out with discmans, 1 traffic light box (6 colored globes with a chaser) and 1 mushroom light. On the other hand, its not a club. I brought a couple of lasers with me, but I asked the couple what feel they were going for.

Generally speaking, if you only have $200-300 to spend on lights, get four led wash lights. I learnt this the hard way, effect lights are cool, but if its too dark, people might trip, causing the venue to turn up the house lights, then you cant see them anyway.

Most venues won't let you use a smoke machine. So, aerial lasers become just scribbles on the wall. A mini fireworks laser (spits the beam into many smaller beams, instead of scanning it) is a nice effect to point at the roof for the starry night effect.

[Narukami]

all these tips really help me a lot guys I probably should follow Funky Steve's advice. But these tips that all you others gave me gave me a small idea about what to do. I'm really just worried about the music :/

i don't think i'll do a wedding anytime soon, though. Just thinking abiut it freaks me out,haha

[Sax]

I can relate myself to this topic as it will be only reason why i want to DJ.

I will be doing Turkish weddings and being Turkish myself, I have a fair understanding of what the crowd expect.

I agree with the oldies topic. Most music played in weddings generally sits around the older music. The new stuff is generally played at the end whrn the young ones want to shake off their moves while trying to stand up straight.

I can only talk for the type of weddings I have been involved in.

We generally ask the bride and groom for what they want the DJ to play. So they can give you an expectation list with track names or a CD with all the songs. All you do is play them I would suggest you ask for these songs and expectation in a month in advance so you can practice if need be.

Hope it helps!

[GREMM1S]

^ 100% the only reason i managed one they even gave me the music lol

[Otto]

Haven't done any weddings or more formal events myself - but from what I have heard from a friend, they generally suck unless it's a much younger crowd (i.e. he had one where a 23 year old couple was getting married, and could play almost whatever he wanted).

[overit]

Here tis...

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4852

Enjoy!

^this thread is so full of gold for someone in your situ. I've done weddings for 6/7 years now, DJ'd bars and clubs etc for 15 before that.

But as others have said, maybe worth getting some more dj experience and wedding experience before you put them together and try and dj at a wedding. Many people think it's the biggest day of their lives, you don't want to get the blame if it isn't quite the disney fantasy the bride has dreamt up since she was 6.

my biggest tip if you do go for it - talk to the bride and groom, get them to give you an idea of the music, how they want you to deal with requests, and if you need to be prepared for anything eg lead in songs for fireworks, announcing buffet, first dance song. (I was once expected to have the theme to Jaws just to back up some guests crap idea of joke).

If the bride and groom are too busy to plan with you then they deserve a £40 google DJ who hurts everyones ears. Couples who want a good party will want to spend the time sorting it.

[GREMM1S]

Get pisswrecked