Don't you hoors make me go to The Knot...

[sprky79]

Meeting a potential DJ tonight. Things to remember to ask/not ask? Things your DJ did at your wedding that you still cringe about? Things you didn't ask him/her to do but are glad they did?

Thanks!

[ralphlauren]

I did not have a dj but I would make sure that your DJ will be the MC for the night. Will he be announcing all of the main events such a toasts, first dance, etc..

Make she that he will not take requests for songs (or specific songs)

Do they provide any lighting? Such as uplights or led lights (I think that is the new big thing)

[nadasteph]

My FIL died a year before our wedding, and even though we said NO parents during the wedding party dance, he still called up the parents and my MIL looked so sad and uncomfortable. It was awful.

[amberlyrose]

Give a DETAILED list.
I said I didn't mind line dances but the first 3 songs were line dances of some sort.
I asked for some country to be mixed in and we got like 2 songs.
Thankfully, she was running her DJ software off iTunes, so she could download any song we wanted or requested, which was pretty nice.

I do like that she surprised us with the Grease medley. I guess she picked up on my choir/musical geek side That was probably the best song of the whole night. BIL made it very theatrical.

[Nicole]

most important... song requests. are they allowed? do you want them? if yes, who is allowed to make them?

I said the DJ could take song requests but only from the wedding party after a certain hour.

[emsumm]

You should be allowed to make a "do not play" list, as well as a "definitely play" list. I know when we were looking for a band, they let us come to events they were doing so we could hear them in action. Maybe you can ask if it's ok for you to do that? Then you can make sure you like him/her as an MC.

[sprky79]

Most definitely on the Do Not Play thing. I'm pretty tolerant music wise, but there is a very well known and popluar among drunk idiots song with my name on it. Said DJ will be threatened within an inch of his life from playing that song. :-)

[Deleted]

If you're just meeting the DJ, there's really not much to ask. At least, I can't think of anything off the top of my head, aside from pricing.

All the other stuff here? Great advice re the DJ you do eventually hire.

[Mrs.Beagle]

Oct 24, 2012 12:19:50 GMT -5 @sprky79 said:

Most definitely on the Do Not Play thing. I'm pretty tolerant music wise, but there is a very well known and popluar among drunk idiots song with my name on it. Said DJ will be threatened within an inch of his life from playing that song. :-)

LOL my friend has a similar name (or the same), hates that song, and they played it anyway.

[laptopvixen]

How will he manage requests from the crowd?

Some idiot boyfriend of one of my mother's sorority sisters (a.k.a. who the fuck are you?) brought his own cd of the Mummers (which is essentially polka) and kept asking it to be played.

DJ took me aside and was like, "who is this dude?" and I was like, "he is NO ONE dude." and DJ was all like "ok, dude, I'll keep ignoring him."

[underwaterrhymes]

I would be very clear about which songs are a must play and which ones he should not play under any circumstances. The do not play list only had "Wind Beneath My Wings" on it and he was fine there, but there were two songs I wanted played that we had challenges with.

I wanted the Chicken Dance because MIL LOVES that damn song. I realize no one else does, but I love her and I wanted to please her and it never got played. Which made me sad.

I also had to run over and hound the DJ to play "Come on Eileen." This was on my MUST PLAY EARLY list because I have a very dear friend that suffered a stroke a number of years ago and her life has changed forever because of it. This is OUR song since we're the only people we've ever met who know all the words and sing it as enthusiastically as we do. She was getting ready to leave and was crying and he hadn't played it yet, so I had him cut off the song he was playing so we could get our toora loora on. I was a little irked with him because he hassled me a bit.

Aside from these two things he was fantastic, but those were two very important things.

[sprky79]

Oct 24, 2012 12:24:15 GMT -5 laptopvixen said:

How will he manage requests from the crowd?

Some idiot boyfriend of one of my mother's sorority sisters (a.k.a. who the fuck are you?) brought his own cd of the Mummers (which is essentially polka) and kept asking it to be played.

DJ took me aside and was like, "who is this dude?" and I was like, "he is NO ONE dude." and DJ was all like "ok, dude, I'll keep ignoring him."

Oh, that's a good one. And the Mummers? Weird.

People may try pretty hard. Some of my friends think it is GREAT fun when this song is on around me :-).

[midnightmare81]

I agree on both a "make sure to play" and a "do not play" list, as well as whether or not you want to allow requests. Ditto on the MC as well. My BIL's wedding, the DJ was useless. They would have been better saving their $ and using an Ipod. They didn't do anything but play music. More then 1/2 the guests missed the cake cutting totally cause they didn't announce it. The only reason ANYONE saw it was because some people were sitting by it and those people tried to get others attention, but had to do it quietly so as not to disturb the "ceremony". Our DJ was also our MC, and he was FANTASTIC. He played music, announced everything, as well as did ALOT to get everyone going. He made it so much fun, everyone had a blast!

[laptopvixen]

Oct 24, 2012 12:28:34 GMT -5 @sprky79 said:

Oct 24, 2012 12:24:15 GMT -5 laptopvixen said:

How will he manage requests from the crowd?

Some idiot boyfriend of one of my mother's sorority sisters (a.k.a. who the fuck are you?) brought his own cd of the Mummers (which is essentially polka) and kept asking it to be played.

DJ took me aside and was like, "who is this dude?" and I was like, "he is NO ONE dude." and DJ was all like "ok, dude, I'll keep ignoring him."

Oh, that's a good one. And the Mummers? Weird.

People may try pretty hard. Some of my friends think it is GREAT fun when this song is on around me :-).

It's not that weird, it's kind of a Philadelphia tradition to play like, ONE, Mummers Strut during the reception. But not like multiple selections, lol.

[sprky79]

Oct 24, 2012 12:30:52 GMT -5 laptopvixen said:

Oct 24, 2012 12:28:34 GMT -5 @sprky79 said:

Oh, that's a good one. And the Mummers? Weird.

People may try pretty hard. Some of my friends think it is GREAT fun when this song is on around me :-).

It's not that weird, it's kind of a Philadelphia tradition to play like, ONE, Mummers Strut during the reception. But not like multiple selections, lol.

Ah, got it. Makes much more sense.

[PinkSquirrel]

The question I should have asked but didn't .... "You won't be wearing crocs to my wedding, right?"

[adhdfashion]

Oct 24, 2012 12:42:05 GMT -5 PinkSquirrel said:

The question I should have asked but didn't .... "You won't be wearing crocs to my wedding, right?"

This^ times two.

[lovesherheels]

We had a DJ for our wedding and kind of let him do his own thing. That's not the norm and totally went against my Type A nature ... but doing a play/do not play list was not at the top of my to do list.

Do confirm:
*That you have the option of a Do Play/Don't Play list
*Attire -- specify it (ours asked)
*Number of weddings done (make sure you get someone with experience)
*Act as MC
*Confirm that they'll play music during non-dancing part of your reception, if there is one (e.g., dinner)
*They can play music during the ceremony/cocktail hour (if you need it)

We only specified two line dances, first song and last song, our "special" songs (e.g., cake cutting, first dance) ... oh. And no Dave Matthews (because I'm the only person in the entire world who doesn't like that music).

Good luck at the meeting!

[discogranny]

Ask how many songs they own and what percentage of those are modern pop, classic rock, whatever categories you are interested in having. The DJ we used told us this number that sounded really high but it turned out like 50,000 of his songs were karaoke tracks and he literally had one out of ten songs requested at the wedding.

Also, ask them how much credence they give to do not play/must play lists if that's important to you. We had "What is the one song you will absolutely dance to if played?" printed on our RSVP cards for guests to let us know what they wanted to hear. We gave him the list of those and let him know that while it absolutely was not a "play these songs only" list, we would like him to play at least some of those songs and kind of use the list as an indicator of the vibe of the wedding guest. Yeah, not so much.

Sorry, I have bad wedding DJ angst.

[sprky79]

Oct 24, 2012 13:53:50 GMT -5 discogranny said:

Ask how many songs they own and what percentage of those are modern pop, classic rock, whatever categories you are interested in having. The DJ we used told us this number that sounded really high but it turned out like 50,000 of his songs were karaoke tracks and he literally had one out of ten songs requested at the wedding.

Also, ask them how much credence they give to do not play/must play lists if that's important to you. We had "What is the one song you will absolutely dance to if played?" printed on our RSVP cards for guests to let us know what they wanted to hear. We gave him the list of those and let him know that while it absolutely was not a "play these songs only" list, we would like him to play at least some of those songs and kind of use the list as an indicator of the vibe of the wedding guest. Yeah, not so much.

Sorry, I have bad wedding DJ angst.

This is actually a really cool idea.

[discogranny]

Oct 24, 2012 13:57:28 GMT -5 @sprky79 said:

This is actually a really cool idea.

It made opening the RSVPs that much more fun because people requested songs we would have never expected them to like or dance to. We got some good laughs and were able to express to the DJ that some requests, (like my great-grandmother's) absolutely had to be played. It was so great to see her dance in all of her 90 year old glory to some hit from 1940.