So you've decided on a DIY iPod wedding. It's a great way to save money and have control of your event. Now you get to have total control over the music and add your personal touch to your big day with an Ipod or your maybe your computer" Maybe you might want to use the worlds largest iPod docking station which I'll talk about later. Imagine no more Cheesy DJ or Bad music selections.
First let's talk about what your replacing... I'm a 30-year veteran DJ & I've seen it all. I'd much rather you hire me but the point here is how to DIY successfully. I'll show you just that. You have to remember not all DJ's are cheesy or play bad music. Sometimes DJ's get a bad rap because the client wanted the cheese and bad music played. Some DJ's can be cheesy on demand or quiet or somewhere in-between.
A good DJ will allow you the options and deliver exactly what you agreed to. When hiring a DJ you typically pay for experience & talent, a great DJ should comply with your every wish and if you're off base they should give good advice and still do what you ask. Things good DJ's do - Line up a wedding party for introductions, tell everyone where to go & when, introduce the bridal party with class and energy, introduce the 1st dance, invite the bride and father up to dance, invite the groom and mother up to dance, introduce the person giving the toast or toasts, intro the person saying a prayer, do cheesy things during dinner i.e. Glass banging invites, entice shy folks up to dance with silly dancing activities, host the cake cutting, garter removal and or announce garter/bouquet toss. and finally coordinate all these events with the venue and the photographer / videographer. If you're going to do this remember not to ask the venue staff to do the things a DJ would do for you. They have enough on their table. Pun intended.
Avoid hooking up your iPod and sound mixer/preamp to a hotels ceiling speaker system. That's even if they let you. It's very easy to blow it up and the repairs are quite expensive. Besides the sound is usually not very good anyway. More on the set up later.
Here's what you'll need to get started: (Everyone has different expectations) you have to decide what's important to you.
1. An iPod or a Lap top computer that plays your music, a Mixer / pre amp, speakers, stands, amplification, microphone, dj effect lights, up lighting, cables and connectors and a friend who knows how to set this stuff up. Oh there are two more options. Rent / borrow a DJ style sound system and have the friend set it up or there is also the option of renting the worlds largest iPod docking station which is basically a gigantic sound system in a box on wheels. It's plug and play and as long as you know how to operate your iPod you're good to go. You can rent this thing at iPodpartys.com , It comes with or without Video/slide show capabilities, with or without a DJ effect light and you can also play karaoke songs on it as it has a microphone attached. It's very cool and novel.
2. A friend or friends who won't mind pressing Play, Pause and possibly someone to make announcements. All who won't overindulge say or do the wrong things and ruin your day. (Microphone control is important)
3. A music/photo montage/video/karaoke selection session with your spouse 2B. Many iPods will allow all of those options.
4. Another session with your friends to add to what you've missed - and to eliminate the songs that may be cheesy in their opinion.
Planning the Cocktail hour
Make an iPod playlist for the cocktail hour.
Will the cocktail hour be in the same room as the reception? If not you'll need to either run an additional sound system (or giant iPod docking station), run a speaker from the set up in the reception room, set up the system in the cocktail room, break it down and reset the system in the reception area or just abandon the cocktail hour idea. I suggest background music for cocktails. Instrumentals work perfectly here. i.e. Non-High energy, mellow songs or even standards like Sinatra, soft rock etc. You may want to mix a little bit of medium energy in during the cocktail hour. You don't want to make to low energy. Make all playlists a bit longer than you would expect, as timing doesn't always go exactly as planned. Have fun with it, but remember that your guests are trying to talk during cocktails.
Dinner
Make a few playlists for dinner...
Playlist 1.
For during begin with a lower tempo and slowly build up the energy by increasing the speed of the music and the energy of the music as the meal moves along. Dinner is usually about 1 hour depending on if it's a buffet or a sit down. Sit-downs tend to be longer. You going to want to see people enjoying the music with feet taping and heads moving as dinner ends. Make your play-lists with extra songs, as it's typical for weddings to run late.
Announcements (If you're going to have them)
If you wish to have formal announcements select someone to act as the M.C. (Master of ceremonies) Have a script for the person/s you have chosen to make your announcements unless your comfortable with that person/s ability to adlib, not say anything that will offend anyone, use clear diction, hold the microphone close to the mouth without cupping it, not speak to long and have the ability to control the microphones use. You may wish the M.C to introduce the bridal party and then the bride & groom. Following this you have to decide when and if you want the following events to occur.
1st Dance, Father/Daughter dance, Mother/Son dance, Toast/s, blessing announcing of the cake cutting, garter removal and or announce garter/bouquet toss. The announcements should be warm, professional and fun. If the announcements are in anyway the slightest bit offensive sounding, it could ruin everyone's fun and the feel of your reception. I suggest you exercise extreme caution here, as this element is crucial and can make for a failed wedding reception if not executed properly. Have someone to operate the iPod for introduction music, as this would be difficult for the MC to do at the same time.
Dancing
Playlists for Dancing.
After or in between your events you may wish for your guests to dance. I suggest you make 2 playlists, one for fast music and the second for slow songs. This depends on how much you want the ipod operator to be involved and how much control you want over the dancing.. Your iPod operator should be familiar with its use. The operator should not be cutting songs off by accident while people are dancing, knowing where to find songs, how to avoid a long space between songs etc. Roughly estimate to play 4 to 6 fast ones and then 1 or 2 slow ones. You can repeat this process until the end of the reception or You can just make one playlist for a fully automated reception.
The order of the songs is important. You want to make sets of songs that build up in speed, beats per minute and intensity. When it gets to a climax, that's when you change to a different genre or go to a slow song. Watch out for songs with long boring introductions, especially long talking intros that will clear the dance floor. If you really want control over the music make many playlists with different types of music. You may want to set your ipod to crossfade. Remember that can cut off the end of songs that have a pronounced ending. Normalizing the sound on your iPod also makes for less high and low volume songs, which can be annoying.
Video and more
If your iPod has video capabilities you can have a slideshow presentation with music, have it scroll through photos of days gone by, scroll through photos of the ceremony. (Provided someone with a laptop can do this for you quickly or make it on a second iPod). Maybe play music videos or even some karaoke A wide screen projector and screen can be added to the giant iPod docking station, party / dancing lights, wireless microphone, they can even add larger sound or set you up to use your computer on there system. They also can rent you a full DJ rig with very powerful sound.
IPod Tips
Sound for dancing sounds better when it's closer to the dancing area. Have someone line up the guests for introductions and make sure whoever is being announced for whatever event is actually there. (Having M.I.A.'s looks bad and wastes time).
Have someone coordinate with the folks providing food service and camera/videographers. Nothing is worse than someone saying go get the food when it's not ready yet, announcing a toast when no beverage is available or having the 1st dance missed by the photographer or worse yet a missing spouse.
Have someone control the microphones use. If you have a free for all on the microphone you may get screaming, talking over songs, bad language or just way too much conversation by to many people that can hold up the events. Especially when alcohol is served.
When programming your music decide if you want to just please yourself or do you wish to also please your guests. Many times they expect the silly stuff to have fun. A musically themed event is nice for creating an atmosphere however it can be boring if not programmed with the guest's fun in mind.
If your going to pick people to do the announcements and music, choose people whom don't mind spending time away from the fun of the wedding. Don't you or your spouse try to run all this yourself. Remember it's YOUR day and you don't want to be stressed out or not remember / experience the joy of your wedding day.
Conclusion
If this seems all too much of a production, I'm available for a fee, in Orlando to make your announcements or I can just come out and professionally DJ the whole event for you. Just remember a reception is a PARTY. Have fun!
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