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Posting because I too would like advice on this. I am wavering on the issue, as I have hated about 98% of all DJs I've ever seen, in a club or at a wedding. This is one thing I really want to micromanage.
I had a friend who had a ipod wedding and it turned out great. She had a friend who was the dj and he was great. I am hoping to do this myself. My FI works in Radio so maybe one of the guys at the station could help us with this since they do it for a living.
Number one piece of advice if you're going iPod - have someone designated to 'work' the iPod/laptop/iTunes. You don't want to be the one running back and forth making sure it's working okay. You'll be fine once that hurdle is cleared!! =)
Are you planning to have someone run it and choose the music as they go, or plan out song for song and just have it play with someone running it for the events... first dance, etc...??
I am thinking about planning it song for song. FI and I have specific tastes in music and the only people I think would run it don't share our tastes. For instance I fear my brother would skip all the country/oldies songs to play more Bob Dylan.
We did the iPod wedding and it was just fine. We also had a DOC and she manned our MacBook like a hawk to make sure all our music cues were on track.
We had one small hiccup with the first dance. Our DOC didn't time it right, and we were left waiting for a few seconds in the middle of the dance floor for the music to start, but I don't think anyone cared/noticed too much. It could have been prevented had I told her we didn't want that to happen, so it was our fault.
But yeah, I still maintain one of the smartest decisions we made was NOT hiring a DJ. I get why people do, but they're really so expensive, and we put the $500 we were quoted to good use on our honeymoon. Our crowd danced like crazy and there were no other hiccups.
We timed our iTunes playlists like whoa. That was the only downfall is that it was time-consuming getting those finalized. But, to me, it was worth it because we got to have complete control over the music, and we set-up everything so that it flowed perfectlly to our tastes.
EDIT: If this helps, we set-up separate playlists for each wedding section, and numbered them so they were in order. For example:
1 - Cocktail hour
2 - First dance
3 - Dinner music
4 - Family dances
5 - Reception/Dance
6 - Last dance
We also tagged two or three extra songs at the end of each playlist to make sure we didn't run out of music in case something went over.
Definitely make sure someone is manning the ipod -- and it shouldn't be you, since it's your wedding! Otherwise, I feel like unruly guests will probably hijack it and switch the music on you. This is what has happened at pretty much every party that I've been at with ipod music. Someone ultimately decided, "hey, I want to hear THAT song", and then they just grab the ipod and make it happen.
@Miss Chaptstick - I'd say you're the ipod genuis! Having a playlist for just single dances sounds like the perfect way to transition songs quickly and smoothly. I also really liked your tip for adding a couple extra in case something runs long. Thanks!
We were going to do iPod. We couldn't, however, figure out who would be capable of manning it for us. So now we're entertaining the offers and proposals from various DJs, all of whom look like they might do Siegfried and Roy impersonation shows in their spare time.
No seriously, is there something in some hidden DJ dress code where feathered-hair is mandatory as part of the uniform?
i'm doing the i-pod thing too. from what i've been told there is a way to adjust each playlist to how many seconds you'd like between songs. if i figure out how to do this i'll let you know, obviously it would be best for each song to immediately follow the next...i think my friend told me this option was under "settings"?
I'm glad others have had good experiences with it. I really like the idea of seperate play lists for each section of the wedding. I've been a little nervous about it for a while.
I can't stand most of the popular dance music out there now, because of the cursing and recurrent theme of sex, so I really wanted to micromanage the music down to every single song.
Thankfully we are having a pretty informal wedding and if the timing is off a bit, I don't think I, or the guests, will care too much.
We're planning to do this, and 5 days out, this is my biggest stress. Why didn't I get a DJ? Also, we asked all of our guests to give us their favorite love songs so we could incorporate them... but many of them i've never heard/don't like. oops! :-) I think we'll play them during the breakfast hour(we have a morning wedding). I am loving the advice though, we have a guy to man the ipod, I just hope it all goes smoothly! In hindsight, i wonder if hiring a DJ would be better, even though I love being able to pick exactly what we're going to have played.
For those that do go with an ipod reception, what do you do for the soundsystem & actual setup? How expensive/complicated are those?
We may have cocktail hour and reception in two different places, so I was thinking of doing ipod during cocktail hour since it seemed pretty straightforward. With all these positive experiences/attitudes towards using ipods for the whole thing it is sounding better & better. Especially the part about saving money!!
I am very curious as to the setup of things too ... BUMPY
We are planning to use two medium sized speakers. We have a smaller building, so that should be plenty. And I'm planning to have my macbook as a back up.
the event rental place we're looking at has a pa system with mics and speakers available to rent for $135... much more affordable than a dj!
Oh no!! di5308 Don't let my decision make you second guess yours!! I think iPod weddings are totally doable, especially since you said your wedding is an informal daytime not-super-dancy wedding! I would just say be VERY prepared. You've gotten some great advice here - make sure you have all your playlists set up, pre-test the pause time between songs and have different categories for different parts of the reception instead of just one giant playlist so it's easy to skip ahead if the guests aren't feeling a particular playlist (as Miss Chapstick said).
Also, definitely designate one person (a friend/family member/etc) to be in charge of keeping an eye on the iPod in case something goes wrong - you don't want to have to be the one who runs over to figure it out. Lastly, bring backups!! Like, two iPods with the playlists loaded, and a computer with them too! Then again that could be overkill but I'd rather be over prepared :)
I think lots of event rental companies will be able to rent you speakers - it's definitely less costly than a DJ but make sure you have someone who knows how to set them up in the venue!
Good luck and let us know how it goes! Since you said you want to micromanage the songs, I'm sure it will work out great :)
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Ms. Guinea Pig's post on a not-so-hot iPod reception and their decision to hire a DJ has left me a little nervous about our iPod reception.
On the plus side we are having a day time, outdoors wedding with mainly older guests who won't be dancing as much. On the other hand, I would like to avoid the awkward moments of searching for a song and being left with silence, especially at important moments like the first dance!
There is no room at our venue or in our budget for a DJ, so I need suggestions/tips for pulling this off!