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I went to a wedding that was an ipod wedding and unfortuntly it did not turn out well. If you do go the ipod route I would recommend doing a trial run at the venue if possible and assigning a person who knows about soundsystems to be in charge of it!
We're doing our own music--laptop with pre-made playlists (e.g., ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, special songs, reception) plus our own speaker system. We chose this route not because of budget but because we don't care for live music or DJs.
I do have to admit, though, that I'm a little nervous about how this will all turn out! I've heard of many people that have had great experiences and many horror stories. Fortunately, though, we're not a "dancing" couple, so I'm not going to be remotely heartbroken if the dance floor isn't packed.
I think it can work well if you put in the time and effort ahead of time and have someone to man the equipment and make sure things go relatively smoothly.
Good luck!
I wish I had the patience to compile a play list to do an iPod reception. That would save us some money. I am curious to find out from those that have done it what they did for an emcee or host?
Also, for those who have done it, what did you do about the eerie silence in between songs? Was your playlist one very long single?
Before I didn't have an opinion on the ipod vs. DJ debate but as of this weekend I have first hand experiences.
I was the MOH in the wedding and let me preface this by saying the bride and groom did NOT put any time or effort into the reception playlist!
They gave me a list for cocktail, dinner and reception music on the wednesday before the wedding and so I spent 7 hours putting together the playlists.
I thought there was a good mix of young vs. old songs. However, the reception did not go so well.
The older generation kept bugging me to play older songs EVERY TIME a young song came on. Which was OH SO FUN FOR ME!!!! Random guests kept going up to the ipod because it was un-manned and would change songs at will. In the middle of songs and everything. Additionally because it was an ipod playlist the songs didn't mix into each other at ALL!
By the end of the night I was a DJ - I was picking and choosing the songs to make sure the dance floor would stay packed. So I was at the ipod at the end of every song to make sure that I would start the next appropriate song at the right time. And you don't even want to know the bitching I heard about the music from the guests which made me feel so bad and guilty. I must be honest and say I had a minor breakdown outside the venue, but I collected myself and went back to DJing!!!!!
All I can say is I REALLY respect DJs as a profession. They read the crowd and get the dance floor bumping. They mix the songs and make sure there is good flow to the music. And most importantly they take a lot of slack from the guests... and prevent it from being placed on the MOH LOL!
If my experience can help anyone please get a DJ!
@baldor1: The eerie silence between the songs sucked and was quite awkward! It almost cleared the dance floor EVERY TIME!
- I, the MOH, and the BM were the MCs for the night so that was not an issue at this wedding. But if you do go the ipod route you will need to assign someone to be your MC.
We had also considered that company, and when we were telling our now DJ about it he made a good point: the DJ controls the vibe and flow of the evening. They know when to keep playing fast songs, and when to slow it down and play slower songs. They can "play" the room more. If there are any announcements they can also make those.
So that's my advice!
My DJ was one of the favorite parts of my wedding so I voted for that! It makes for a nice intro for speeches/etc and you can relax and enjoy yourself.
That being said, I've heard some success stories with a iPod wedding so if you planned it to a T it might work
We're doing iPod for cost and because we've been to weddings with pretty horrific DJs. We are asking two friends to man it so they can alternate and compiling the playlists ourselves. Our venue is letting us rent the speakers for $150. However, we are spending a lot of time on playlists and were advised to buy higher quality-sound music rather than burning poor quality stuff that wouldn't translate well to speakers.
We are using Just Press Play's DIY setup. We met with Jeff from JPP and he advised us to use a laptop instead of an ipod. I put a note our wedding site telling people we are not having a DJ and they need to request songs before the wedding. I'm going to use a screensaver that tells people not to touch the computer but designate a few people as "safe" to adjust the playlist.
We are using an Ipod for the ceremony and Cocktail hour. Then using a DJ for the reception. I need someone that can adapt to the audience during the reception. During the other parts, the guests don't have a choice in songs.
We are so torn on this issue. We were going to use a laptop because:
1. We are really picky about music (we are both musicians, heh) and know exactly what we want played.
2. We are trying to save money.
3. We want control over the music.
We are in the process of compiling playlists for the ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner background music, and the dancing music for the reception. This is going really well!
However, we just realized we do not have an MC so we are considering hiring a DJ. But we are really worried that a DJ would be cheesy or just not fit in with what we want. Also, we are planning this wedding long distance and this is going to be one more vendor to coordinate with from afar. Ahhh! LOL
I guess since I have plenty of time I just need to do more research and explore all of my options.
We had an iPod wedding, and couldn't recommend it enough if you're okay with not having a DJ. I personally hate DJs. So for us, it was either a band or an iPod, and we couldn't afford the band.
We set-up playlists in iTunes, and ran everything from our laptop. Everything was fine. We did have a DOC, though, so she made the transitions smooth. We used a feature in iTunes that allowed the songs to flow right into each other without any overlap, so it was like a DJ was manning the station. We have different family members make announcements (cake cutting, first dance, etc.) during the evening for a special touch.
For emergencies, we added lots of extra music so we didn't run out. And we saved at least $300 doing it this way. Yeah, it's a lot of prep work to download good quality MP3s and we did have to buy some of the more rare songs on iTunes rather than finding them for free on Limewire or whatever. But overall, it was a huge savings, and we were happy with our decision.
We are using our Ipod as well, we are not doing traditional wedding stuff, like announcing family, cake cutting and such and the ipod will save us money. We are going to pay someone we know to run the ipod from my laptop, that way he can adjust the tunes as necessary. Here are the instructions for fading the songs together on the ipod, itunes
You can fade songs in and out, without gaps of silence between them.
Choose Edit > Preferences and click Playback.
Select Crossfade Songs.
To decrease or increase the amount of time it takes for the current song to fade out at the end and the new song to fade in, drag the “seconds” slider left or right.
My sister did the ipod DJ thing. She got input from a lot of family and compiled a list from it. Overall it was really successful. People danced the whole night.
However, my brother also did Ipod DJing and it went really poorly. But there were reasons for it. The biggest was that they only played what they wanted to hear. His wife didn't like country music but my family loves country. Also, they played a bunch of indie songs that no one knew. THey also chose some songs that they KNEW were undanceable, but just wanted to hear.
I think my point is that Ipod DJing can be successful. The key to having an awesome dance is catoring to the preferences of guests. You may hate the chicken dance, but its a good choice for a wedding with children. You may only listen to top 40 music, but your parents and grandparents will want to hear music from their generation.
We're not going to have a dance floor set up for our wedding, but providing music more as background. There will be space to dance if people so choose, but we don't care if people get up and dance.
What is the advantage of using a laptop over an ipod?
Hi I actually signed a contract with just press play productions. I know it will be some work creating all the play lists, but in the end they do it all. Manage the IPOD, they are your MC through out the whole thing. And since I'm getting married outside, they'll set up a mic and sound system for the ceremony as well. I think it sounded great for my budget.
We used Just Press Play and I can't recommend him enough. Jeff was awesome and super-friendly, gave great advice, made changes on the fly when needed and made all of our needed announcements without the cheese of the standard wedding DJ. How well the playlists are put together, the music flow, mood, etc. all depend on the work you put into it. Hubs and I spend a good month and a half putting together just the right playlists (we're total music snobs) and are still getting compliments about the music two months later. It was seriously way better than any wedding DJ I've ever heard.
If you don't want to put the work in of perfecting a playlist and just want someone else to put together a perfectly fine mix, hire a good DJ. If you're very particular about music, the ipod DJ (and Jeff in particular) is by far the way to go. I would never trust my wedding music to some random dude's taste!
We did the ipod thing and we did almost everything perfectly. We edited the pauses, and fading. One mistake was there was a song with a revving motor in the beginning and we didn't edit it out and should have. I think our guests thought a motorcycle was about to come through the venue!
The bad part was I asked to test it out at our rehearsal but they lost the cable. They assured me they would have one the day of and they did. Our dinner music played wonderfully but when the dance music came on, something was off. The vocals were all quieter than the instrumental and we had to convince the staff memeber running it that it needed to be fixed before he got it all balanced out.
@AnnLizDee: So you are getting married on New Year's eve 2015? on thursday??
I have been to weddings with an IPOD and was not weird since there was so many people there. It just depends on how important to you it is to have a DJ/band.
What is your budget for music?
We are planning on doing an ipod set up as well, but I have to admit I am a little nervous that things wont run smooth...It's nice to read all your tips and how to fade the songs tho!
A DJ just wasn't important to us and we decided to spend the money elsewhere. So far FH has made a playlist of music we both like and we asked people to write a music request on their response cards. Now we just have to edit them to the way we want and apoint someone MC for the night (most likely FBIL since he's bestman).
@laloulee: thank you thank you thank you!! I didn't know about the fade thing and that just clinched my decision on ipod (laptop actually).
FI and I immediately thought about doing an ipod reception for two reasons. First to save money. But also because we don't like djs. FI is huge into music and he offered to do all of our playlists. We aren't just going to plug in an ipod and hit shuffle, there will be a lot of thought that goes into it. He has researched the most popular wedding songs, and has even made a spreadsheet of all of our music broken down by band/song/genre/length plus a special code he made up. He has them listed as fast dance songs, slow dance songs, group dance songs, and bride/groom favorites (those songs we love but aren't very dance-able will be played during dinner).
We have a friend who will be MC'ing for us and will be in charge of switching playlists. The only thing I was worried about was that gap! Now that i found the crossfade, that is fixed. Yay for ipods (and saving money!)
Has anyone used Chicago Speaker Rental? They list 2 packages for only $90-135.
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Hello friends!
I was wondering if anyone had any advice about the iPod vs. DJ debate. We are looking to cut costs wherever we can (350 people!! yikes!!!), but also want to make sure the music is great, transitions are good, etc.
Has anyone ever worked with Just Press Play Productions? It looks like they offer a variety of services--you can get just a sound system, a sound system and an MC (you provide the music), or all of the above.
Any input? Do you think a DJ is invaluable? Have you been to weddings where it was just an iPod and a sound system? Was it weird? Did you have a backup?
Or does anyone have any referrels for decent DJs at a super-reasonable price in the Chicagoland area (on a Saturday)?
Thanks so much!