Wenning’s Wedding Tip Wednesday
When you hire a DJ for your Big Day you do so for a reason. If you had the time and knowledge you would just do it yourself, right? Even if you are knowledgeable on how to DJ/Emcee a wedding, you have something more important to focus your attention toward on that day! Think of it this way, you have hired this professional based on their skill, experience and personality. Your input is extremely important but you also have to let them do the job you are paying them for. Your DJ will ask you what songs are special to you. Ideally, they should ask you for different playlists of songs such as a Must Play, Do Not Play, etc. Just be sure to keep in mind that there will only be around 15-18 songs played per hour. If you give your DJ a list of 50 Must Play songs and they are all “dance songs” it will be impossible to play all of those songs within the 2 hours of dancing you have in your timeline. There would need to be more of a variety of genres of music given so that your DJ will have music to play throughout the evening during your cocktail hour, dinner and of course dancing.
The job your DJ does is more like an art. There is a lot of psychology that goes into playing songs and determining when to play them. Your DJ is reading your guests reactions from the time they arrive. There will be different genres of music played within the first 2 hours to gauge their reactions on the different types of music. The DJ should be trained to read your guests and know what they are enjoying and tapping their feet to. Remember, your wedding is like a house party times 20! It is your special day and the songs you want played are important but bare in mind that you also want to entertain your guests. You cannot only play the songs you want to hear during your evening. You may think you have created the best playlist for your big day, but making a playlist for a house party is far easier than putting together a playlist that people will actually dance to and everyone, from college and high school friends to your great aunts and uncles, can enjoy. If you “handcuff” the DJ by specifying the songs you want to hear and request them to be played in a certain order then you are making it more difficult for the DJ to please your guests as well as you and your spouse.
If you have a bunch of unique requests for music, allow the DJ to creatively deliver the songs throughout your evening. Be open-minded and allow the DJ to give advice towards making your wedding day memorable. Let the DJ that you hired use their discretion on the most appropriate time to play your requests. We want your input, but be open-minded so that you will be able to enjoy your big day!