Music is a key component to any party, and a good wedding DJ is huge part of making your wedding celebration a success. Finding a DJ who isn’t hokey and who will respect your musical taste while balancing it with what’s appropriate for your guests is no easy task. When meeting with a DJ, if he doesn’t have forms to fill out, doesn’t have some system to get to know your musical taste, or doesn’t show any interest in getting to know what gets you dancing, walk away. You are looking for someone who is trying to figure out what you like and dislike; if the interest level isn’t there at the inital meeting, it won’t magically appear the day of your wedding. Believe me, if you aren’t dancing at your wedding, your guests won’t be either.
A great tool to help communicate what your musical taste is to bring a list of songs you love to your meeting. Its a great way for the DJ to understand your taste and it also helps you hone in on what you really love (you may say you love rock, but as you look at your list you realize its more that you love 90′s grunge rock rather than classic rock like the Beatles). Your wedding is only 6 to 7 hours long so incorporating every favorite song just isn’t possible. So focus, edit, and discuss with your fiance: what songs have meaning for your relationship?
Another key skill a DJ must have is knowing the usual flow of events for a wedding and discussing, in detail, the timeline of your big day. He needs to know when the grand entrance is, toasts, first dance, special dances and so on. Again, if your DJ doesn’t seem to have an organized way to help you figure your perfect music timeline, he won’t be able to execute flawlessly on your wedding day.
And finally, don’t let your musical selections wait until the last moment. Music is an extremely emotional medium and the songs you choose for your special moments should have meaning behind them. I suggest just jotting downs songs you like as you go through the planning process. Pretty soon things will become very obvious as to were each song fits in your day. I know for me it took a long time to figure out our first dance song, but we had always put Sam Cooke as one of the artists on the must-play list. Pretty soon it clicked, and we chose “It’s a Wonderful World” for our first dance.
Well put, I agree. You go girl.
You just forgot one important thing. In my opinion, a great DJ should be able to “beatmix” well. Although it’s not appropriate to beatmix EVERY song (especially at a wedding reception) it is the dominating skill required to keep the dance floor hopping.
Comment by Josh@Goodbeat — June 11, 2008 @ 10:54 pm
Very true Josh! I went to a wedding with another DJ and he just crossfaded between songs and it really killed the vibe. Plus the couple wasn’t dancing so of course nobody was dancing (well except me anyway).
Comment by Kelly — June 11, 2008 @ 11:03 pm